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community weblog
ICE will stop reporting deaths of newly released detainees.
As the number of immigrants dying in government custody rises, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is shrinking the scope of which deaths it will be required to report. (WaPo gift link). In a memo sent to agency employees Thursday and reviewed by The Washington Post, acting director David Venturella said ICE is eliminating its requirement to report deaths that occur within 30 days of people being released from its custody.
The 30-day requirement was adopted in 2021, when President Joe Biden's administration sought to hold ICE accountable for detainees released from its custody with serious medical conditions, said Deborah Fleischaker, who was acting chief of staff at the time. Earlier that year, a man who had contracted the coronavirus while detained at the Adelanto detention center in California died three days after ICE released him.
"The policy changed to make clear that ICE should not release people simply to avoid deaths in custody," Fleischaker said.
posted by subdee on Jun 05, 2026 at 9:12 AM
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In other negative detention news, the Republican approved another $70 billion for ICE and Border Patrol yesterday.
That's on top of the $191 billion that was passed last year in the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act (of which $150 billion is still unspent).
They did it via a vota-a-rama on the budget reconciliation bill, to push it through before the public had time to realize and register their disapproval. Though i still wrote letters to my (Dem) reps yesterday. Of course this passed without any Democratic votes.
After pushback, they took out 1 billion for Trump's ballroom, but DID NOT add any language prohibiting Trump's 1.8 billion slush fund. There is NOTHING WRITTEN DOWN ANYWHERE preventing that fund, we just have Todd Blanches pinky promise that they won't do it.
posted by subdee at 9:18 AM
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Also related: Trump's Military Dictatorship Budget.
About the proposed 1.5 trillion military budget. Professor Snyder says we shouldn't make the mistake of assuming there is any military need for this money or that it comes out of any kind of review process. It is simply a large bribe to the military in hopes they will support Trump and Trumpists when they attempt to remain in power forever.
posted by subdee at 9:22 AM
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"ICE announces plan to accelerate murders."
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:26 AM
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But some positive ICE detention news: after lots of pushback, and a hunger strike, and clashes outside the facility, one 18 year old and 2 pregnant people have been released from detention at Delaney Hall in Newark.
It's not enough but it is something. I have coworkers who were there at the protest on Sunday where our NJ senator, Andy Kim was tear gassed. Detainees families still need support if you can. I've heard that in particular, they need size 7 diapers. Lots of kids who would be potty trained by now if not for all the trauma in their lives are not potty trained, and others who were trained have regressed.
Here's where you can donate to the families of the Delaney Hall detainees:
Direct Family Support: Linktr.ee/SupportOurFamilies
Grocery Store Gift Card Fund: GiveButter.com/GroceryCards
Commissary Fund: GiveButter.com/commissaryfund
Pantry Bags: Food4NJ.org
posted by subdee at 9:26 AM
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More from Indivisible Princeton:
On May 22, Delaney Hall detainees announced a hunger and work strike. Here are their demands:
An in-person meeting with the governor to directly observe conditions and hear testimony
A visit from independent doctors to examine detainees in the wake of violent attacks on strikers, specifically in units 2A and 2B
Immediate release of elderly, youth, pregnant and medically vulnerable detainees
Meaningful and timely review of all immigration cases and habeas corpus filings
An end to coerced signings of deportation/voluntary departure papers
Delaney Hall strikers are not merely demanding better conditions, they are demanding freedom for all incarcerated there and for the facility to be permanently shut down.
In recent days, detainees have smuggled out letters describing horrific conditions at Delaney Hall:
Letter #1: El Grito de Nosotros
Letter #2: SOS
Letter #3: Don't Give Up
Letter #4: We Demand Freedom
Journalists have reported more about shocking medical neglect at ICE detention facilities, including Delaney.
posted by subdee at 9:31 AM
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Given they have been releasing people a long way from home, and without any way to inform their families, it seems like it would be a short step to them dumping bodies with the release papers attached whenever they have a death in custody.
posted by biffa at 9:37 AM
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Don't give them any ideas!
posted by Higherfasterforwards at 9:45 AM
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yeah these are the lessons of the RCMP which will pick up indigenous folks, detain them arbitrarily, and then when pressed, will "release" them at night in the middle of a snowfield in the dead of winter.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:56 AM
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@biffa, horrifying possibility. but not unimaginable, given the history.
@seanmpuckett, yep. same thing in Minneapolis
posted by j_curiouser at 10:52 AM
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To echo seanmpuckett: the 'starlight tour' is already being used by ICE, and this change is clearly an intentional shift to support future uses. Part of the Minneapolis response to the surge here was stationing support crews to help the detainees who were kicked loose in the middle of the woods in below-zero weather without coats or phones.
posted by eraserbones at 10:54 AM
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Not that this should sway you guys one way or the other, but several months ago I heard that an 18 year-old student at my high school where I work had been taken by ICE.
So when the news stories came out that there was an 18 year old student at Delaney Hall translating for others I wondered if that was our student.
Well, it was. She was released yesterday and she's in night school now, and will take summer classes to graduate.
She's not one of my former students but I have a lot of students who could be next. Apparently she had papers that showed she shouldn't have been in detention in the first place. She was there for 2 months.
posted by subdee at 12:50 PM
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the worst bullies have been given license to do whatever they want
I salute anyone who is doing anything in the face of these actions
posted by runsrealgood at 2:29 PM
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Disappearing the data goes hand in hand with disappearing the people - it is literally the authoritarian handbook.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 4:23 PM
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We have a country now where when I saw a story about Nancy GUTHRIE disappearing, I noted that her photo looked like she could have been Kavanaugh Stopped, and thought that she could have died in ICE custody and is now in a lime pit outside one of their concentration camps.
I weep that this is the country we have now.
posted by mikelieman at 4:37 PM
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From festering infections to untreated cancer, ICE detainees across the US describe medical neglect - "An Albanian man's pain grew so unbearable, he said, he pulled out his own tooth as he languished for months in a New Mexico immigration detention center. A Honduran mother of two said she was hospitalized for a heart problem after she was denied blood pressure medications while held in Florida. A Venezuelan man said his leg grew purple and swollen from flesh-eating bacteria when staffers at a Vermont facility did not bring him to a scheduled doctor's appointment. Hundreds of detainees across at least 33 states allege in federal lawsuits that immigration detention facilities are failing to provide adequate medical care, an investigation by KFF Health News and The Associated Press found."
Takeaways from AP-KFF investigation into allegations of medical neglect by detainees in ICE custody - "Detainees allege they didn't receive medications on time — or at all — for conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, epilepsy, Parkinson's and HIV. Requests for help went unanswered for weeks. Blood sugars rose. Infections festered. Cancers remained untreated. Detainees collapsed and had seizures." (The methodology of an AP-KFF Health News investigation into medical neglect at ICE detention centers)
Some major Trump donors are now reaping billions in ICE contracts - "Since returning to the White House in 2025, President Donald Trump has ramped up immigration detention, with private contractors operating much of the required infrastructure - and reaping hundreds of millions of dollars in Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts after making significant contributions to the president's political operations."
Federal inspector reports chokehold, pen stabbing at ICE facility - "Unannounced inspections are one of the few ways to get a clear look inside the detention facilities, which otherwise have limited access for oversight... At the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana, investigators found multiple use-of-force incidents that 'did not fully comply' with standards, according to a report from the Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General."
Trump administration has separated dozens of children from their parents for a second time, AP finds - "Now, eight years after President Donald Trump's forcible border separations came to an official halt following global outrage, an Associated Press investigation has found that the government has re-separated dozens of children from their families, despite a landmark legal settlement meant to reunify them. Some of their parents have been locked in immigration detention facilities for months, others deported back to their home countries after being taken from their families once again. In some cases, immigration officials conducting interior arrests deported people despite discovering they were legally off limits for removal, according to emails obtained by AP."
Takeaways from the AP's report on children who have been separated from their parents a second time - "According to ACLU's most recent accounting, the number of separated parents and children, and their impacted family members covered by the settlement is far greater than previously reported— over 11,800 — and because the government deported so many people before the practice was banned, the full scope may never be known."
posted by kliuless at 1:01 AM
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ICE detainees are dying by suicide at an 'alarming' rate, an AP investigation finds - "Rayo's April 2025 death was the first suicide in a spike among ICE detainees that has alarmed public health officials and jail experts. They said the unprecedented number of suicide deaths is an indication that authorities are failing to properly oversee the detention of tens of thousands of immigrants swept up in the Trump administration's aggressive deportation strategy."
An Associated Press investigation found that at least 10 detainees, all men, have died by suicide since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, a pace that far exceeds the growth in the detainee population, according to a review of ICE data, autopsy reports, coroners' rulings and police records. Since October, seven deaths have been classified as suicides, a number that is already the most for any fiscal year in the agency's history. ICE has usually recorded one or no such deaths annually.
Takeaways from AP investigation that found 'alarming' spike in suicide deaths of ICE detainees - "AP's examination found that ICE detention centers have repeatedly fallen short in ways that violate ICE's standards. Staff ignored signs of distress, delayed mental health treatment and failed to monitor detainees who were already deemed at risk. They also permitted detainees to have access to materials that could be used for self-harm. In some cases, distressed detainees were confined in isolation, a situation that can exacerbate feelings of humiliation and helplessness, according to experts. Three of the facilities where ICE detainees died by suicide have struggled to meet ICE's requirement that detainees receive medical and mental health screenings within 12 hours of arrival, according to inspection reports and jail records."
posted by kliuless at 1:11 AM
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I also need everyone to understand: all the stuff kliuless just linked about medical neglect and deaths by suicide in ICE detention? Those things are also happening every day to people in the domestic prison system, and have been for decades. If you're on team "abolish ICE" but not on team "abolish the police", it's like you're looking at a patient with cancer and thinking you should surgically remove only half of it.
posted by adrienneleigh at 1:26 AM
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yeah all that shit happening in other US prisons, plus slavery. kinda surprised ice is leaving that forced labor money on the table
posted by okayturnip at 3:37 AM
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i suspect that the AP headline quoting the word "alarming" could also be using quotes in the skeptical sense around the word "suicide". after all, why would ICE admit someone died in custody when they could put it on the the neglected person as suicide.
posted by kokaku at 9:54 AM
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ICE Reports 19th Death of 2026: Georgian National Mamuka Artmeladze Dies at Winn Correctional
Mamuka was not a public safety threat, may not have broken a single law, couldn't be deported, and shouldn't have been arrested.
posted by away for regrooving at 12:17 AM
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