New York’s Largest ICE Prison Dogged By Allegations Of Shoddy Medical Care

“I shouldn’t have lost my fingers,” one detainee said of ICE guards’ failure to get him the care a doctor prescribed.

By J. Dale Shoemaker, The Intercept

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and staff have administered what experts said was shoddy medical treatment to at least a dozen detainees at its Batavia, New York, facility in the past two years, according to the findings of a new investigation.

Serious injuries went untreated, medications were denied or scaled back, and needed medical appointments were delayed at the ICE detention center, the state’s largest, located near Buffalo.

In one case, a Nigerian migrant arrived in February at the Batavia ICE detention facility suffering frostbite. A doctor who provided emergency care ordered that he see a specialist within a week before releasing him into ICE’s custody. Agents in Batavia never took him to the appointment. By the time he saw a doctor, it was too late to save his fingers; parts of six were later amputated.

In another case, a Gambian man with numerous heart issues was detained by ICE in February after he showed up for a routine check-in appointment. The man went two weeks without his medications. He suffered a stroke-like syndrome as a result, according to a doctor.

Attorneys and other detainee advocates said in interviews that the cases documented by this reporting are indicative of a wider problem. And a 2023 investigation by NPR found similar problems across ICE’s network of detention centers.