Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director David Venturella has issued a memo rescinding a Biden-era policy that required the agency to report and investigate deaths of detainees within 30 days of their release. The change, first reported by the Washington Post, could obscure the human cost of the Trump administration's mass detention policies.
The 2021 policy was implemented to ensure ICE could not avoid accountability by releasing severely ill detainees. Cases included individuals with brain damage or infections who died shortly after release. The policy was enacted after a man who suffered a stroke while detained for two years at the Adelanto detention center in California died three days after his release.
Deborah Fleischaker, acting chief of staff at the time, said the policy was 'changed to make clear that ICE should not release people simply to avoid deaths in custody.' The move comes amid scrutiny over healthcare quality in detention facilities, with 18 deaths and a significant number of suicides reported in the first five months of this year.
In the latest memo, Venturella wrote: 'ICE is returning to the standard practice of reporting deaths that occur while an individual is in agency custody.' A spokesperson described the new policy as 'common sense,' stating that ICE remains 'committed to transparency' but should not monitor deaths 'when an individual passes away weeks after leaving their custody.'
