KFF Health News and The Associated Press have conducted an investigation into allegations of medical neglect in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centres during the second Trump administration. The analysis relied on immigration habeas corpus claims filed in federal court, as no comprehensive public dataset of medical complaints exists.
Habeas corpus petitions, which typically challenge the legality of detention rather than conditions, sometimes include healthcare allegations. However, accessing these filings is difficult due to federal restrictions; most are only available through in-person visits to courthouses. The nonprofit Immigration Justice Transparency Initiative’s Habeas Dockets project helped gather petitions online via a volunteer network.
The investigation examined roughly 33,000 cases filed between January 2025 and March 2026, of which only about 4,400 included original petitions. Additional case files were obtained from courthouses, lawyers, and the Massachusetts federal district court website. Keyword and semantic searches identified around 500 potential medical neglect cases, with over 300 confirmed after manual review by at least two reporters.
To ensure rigour, cases lacking specific allegations—such as vague claims of illness or complaints about diet or exercise—were excluded. The findings are not representative of all immigration habeas filings, as many petitions remain inaccessible and not all detainees raise medical concerns in court. The claims were not independently verified.
