A new immigrant rights report finds that, over a two year period beginning in 2010, at least eight people died from inadequate medical care while being held at Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) detention centers across the country.

Produced by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Detention Watch Network (DWN) and the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), the report, entitled "Fatal Neglect: How ICE Ignores Death in Detention," probed how ICE routinely failed to comply with its own medical standards, even after violations in fatal cases were found to be "contributing factors in these deaths."

Still, inspections conducted before and after the deadly instances failed to highlight serious flaws, with seven of the eight facilities receiving passing ratings even after the Office of Detention Oversight (ODO) noted various violations.

Detention Center Death Raises Questions

The death of Pablo Gracida-Conte, a detainee at Arizona's Eloy Detention Center, has particularly raised eyebrows. For four months, Gracida-Conte desperately pleaded for medical attention for a condition that caused him to vomit after every meal and persistently sparked upper abdominal pain.

The help never came, and four months later he succumbed to cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease that was medically treatable. Throughout his ordeal, Eloy staff were reportedly unable to effectively communicate with Gracida-Conte because he spoke Mixtec and no interpreter was ever called in to translate.

Still, after his death the facility not only passed inspection, but an ODO investigator decided not to cite the company for noncompliance stemming from its neglect in violating ICE policy by not seeking the assistance of an interpreter.

"Remarkably, the Office of Detention Oversight inspection claimed that Mr. Gracida's death was the first death to ever occur at Eloy when, in fact, it was the tenth death at the facility," said Jennifer Chan, associate director of policy with the National Immigrant Justice Center.

Arizona Center Known as "Deadliest Immigration Detention Center in America"

In all, Eloy has reported at least 14 deaths since 2004, when it earned the dubious distinction of being known as the "deadliest immigration detention center in America." Over at least part of that time, reports are the center operated without the benefit of a clinical director.

Salvadoran national Anibal Ramirez-Ramirez was another victim. He died seven days after being taken into custody by ICE and five days after being processed at the privately operated Immigration Centers of America-Farmville (ICAF) in Virginia.

Though he experienced various medical issues, such as constant vomiting, involuntary bowel movements and extreme disorientation, none of his symptoms were communicated between staffers at the different facilities, almost certainly slowing down any treatment he could have received.

Since the Obama administration came into power in 2008, there have been at least 56 other deaths involving individuals in ICE custody.

Just last year, at least ten men filed a complaint against the Theo Lacy facility in California, alleging physical abuse, medical neglect and retaliatory transfers. Over that same timeframe, numerous immigrants launched hunger strikes in detention centers around the country demanding better medical and dental care.

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