Seven People Have Died In ICE Custody Since Trump Took Office

The conditions under which migrants are being held by the Trump administration are so horrific that seven people died while in ICE custody in the first three months of Trump’s administration. Prior to being locked away, these people were healthy and in the prime of their lives, so it is almost impossible to say that underlying conditions or age caused these deaths. These people are gone because of the conditions of these migrant prison facilities, and the administration couldn’t care less if they live or die. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what happened.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

It has now been confirmed that through the month of April, at least, that we know of seven migrants have died in ice custody since Donald Trump took office. So we are looking at two deaths on average per month of the people that ICE has rounded up as part of their mass deportations and shuffled around from migrant detention facilities to tent cities, to prisons, local prisons, private prisons. Some of them, of course, have gone from each one of these things to the other. And all of the conditions under which most of these people are being held are absolutely horrific because the people who have died are not necessarily, you know, super elderly people that couldn't handle the stress of it, or infants who were denied food. We're talking about average people in the prime of their life with no noticeable or serious health problems, who are dying from the wretched conditions under which they are being held as they await their deportation.

'cause God knows they're not gonna get their day in court, but people are dying. People who before they were apprehended, were leading productive lives here in the United States. They just didn't come in the legal way. But last time I checked, that was still just a misdemeanor, not a capital offense. So here is what's happening according to human rights groups, much like with the first Trump administration, where we also saw people dying constantly in ice custody. We're once again back to that because these detention facilities are not made to house the number of people that they have. So there is not enough food to go around. There are not enough guards or doctors to actually take care of these people. So when, for instance, one of these women went and complained that she was having chest pains, they gave her a couple of ibuprofen and sent her on her way, and she later died.

That's the quality of healthcare that these people are getting. They're neglected. In some instances they're physically abused. But for the most part, it's just the neglect. So if a health emergency does arise, if you have somebody that has a heart attack, it may go unnoticed for a day or two because again, there's not enough people guards to keep an eye on these folks. There's not enough doctors to go around. And for a lot of the contractors working with ICE to run these facilities, they simply don't care. They don't care To the point where one of these facilities in southern Florida,

Which I don't know if you've ever been to southern Florida this time of year, uh, it's not the most pleasant place. We're talking about humidity that some days can hit, you know, 95% direct full sun all day long, and they're keeping them intent cities outside of the prison. 'cause the prison's already at capacity. So you're forcing these families, including young children, including elderly people, to stay outside in the Florida summer, basically 24 hours a day. And then the facility running the tent city said, oh, no, no, don't worry, we put air conditioning in the tents. Now, I, I don't know if anybody is familiar with either air conditioners or tents, but those are typically two things that actually don't work well together. And if you're talking about large outdoor tents, housing, you know, hundreds of people, air conditioners aren't gonna do much of anything. But that's what they say, Hey, we did. So don't worry. People aren't gonna die of heat stroke.