Rights of Immigration Detainees to Acute Medical Care

Publication Date

10-6-2025

Journal

JAMA Internal Medicine

Abstract

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention system currently exceeds stated capacity, holding more than 60 000 people in detention centers across the nation. Noncitizens are more likely to be uninsured and report fair to poor health and may present for acute medical treatment from detention facilities or the community immediately following arrest or be taken into custody on hospital premises—a location no longer protected from ICE visitation.

In this context, what rights do immigration detainees have to medical care, what bars must we meet as their clinicians to uphold our obligations to treatment under difficult circumstances, and what can health systems do to codify interactions with law enforcement? This is an evolving environment, and clinicians may need to deliver care under circumstances where the law may be unclear or unenforced. Herein, we describe current policy and legal principles guiding care of undocumented immigrants who require acute medical care while detained so that clinicians and institutions can understand baseline protections, recognize when practices deviate from declared standards, and deliver effective, confidential, and equitable care in our rapidly changing landscape.

First Page

E1

Last Page

E2

Publisher

American Medical Association

DOI

10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.4988

Disciplines

Immigration Law | Law | Medicine and Health Sciences

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