ICE will now provide heart surgery, biopsies and psychiatric care to detainees
National Examiner
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has agreed to begin providing medical care that goes well beyond emergency treatment, as a result of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU. The suit alleged that ICE was not treating “immigration detainees with constitutionally adequate levels of medical and mental health care.”
Among the many services which ICE will now provide illegal aliens in their custody are heart surgeries, cancer biopsies, treatment for diabetes, dental care, and treatment for mental depression.
On Thursday, Elizabeth Alexander, former Director of the ACLU National Prison Project and lead attorney in the suit said: “For the first time, ICE has committed to providing all necessary health care to immigration detainees beyond just emergency care. For too long, ICE’s own policies allowed it to provide detainees with nothing beyond a narrow definition of emergency. This settlement is recognition that it is unconstitutional not to provide people in government custody with all necessary health care.”
The legal action was filed in June 2007 by the ACLU and the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties and stated that detainees at the San Diego Correctional Facility were often subjected to long waits for medical treatment and denied medication for chronic illnesses.
The lawsuit cited several cases in which detainees with bipolar disorders and depression went untreated, as well as illegal aliens who never received care for high cholesterol and broken teeth.
No word yet on the estimated cost of this new policy to the taxpayers.
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Wild Thing’s comment…….
Good thing we’re not broke or anything.
Anybody who has health problems now knows just comes across the border illegally and a wonderful medical/dental heath care plan is there to take care of all your health needs, free of charge.
“constitutionally adequate levels of medical and mental health care.”
Where is this, exactly, in the Constitution???? Since when do “illegals” qualify for OUR constitional benefits???? Oh, forgot, “we don’t abide by the constitution anymore!!!!!!!
Our Constitution is meant for the people of this nation and not the world!
All I can do is throw my hands in the air and babble.
Unfrigginbelievable.
They come over and shoot our Border Guards and we give them By-Pass operations. We are in a friggin lunatic asylum.The lunatics are running it.
Someone need to go after the ACLU for treason, this is an act of WAR, we are being invaded and they claim our constitution protects the invaders. NO ONE give a hoot, what is wrong with my country????? OMG, LORD help us!
Wouldn’t it be easier and cheaper just to ship them back to Mexico. But when there’s no way to keep them out, it sorta like spitting into the wind.
Exactly!! I haven’t found anything about medical or health care in the Constitution.
They’re going to get free dental care? We’ve got millions of taxpaying citizens who need dental care and can’t afford it. The cost of dental care is outrageous; more than health care.
The ACLU needs to be stopped. They’ve done more to hard this country than any foreign enemy in history.
I understand giving first aid and emergency care (treatment for dehydration and heat stroke)to prisoners, but heart surgery? Biopsies? The answer is don’t detain them…just march their butts right back across the border and dump ’em where they belong.
What happens to an American that enters Mexico illegally? He doesn’t get quality medical treatment, thats for sure. We are losing our minds. The guardians of our treasury are really ripping the American taxpayer off.
Thank you everyone. The ACLU should be the one on the DHS list of a group against our country NOT Veterans or law abiding citizens like they have it now.
OK, this is getting WAY out of control. My disgust at this is total. It is also the first I’ve read about said “lawsuit” aka “extortion”.