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PHR Action Center

Ensure Humane Health Conditions for Asylum Seekers and Other Immigrants Detained in US Facilities

Tell your Senators and Representative in the U.S. House to support the Detainee Basic Medical Care Act of 2008.

According to the Washington Post, the detainee health care system "operates with a top priority of limiting care and saving money. Its medical mission is only to keep people healthy enough to be deported."

The result is an overburdened, under-staffed, and virtually unaccountable system that exposes many asylum seekers and other detained immigrants to needless suffering, and even death.

Please urge your members of Congress today to support the Detainee Basic Medical Care Act.

Send this message to:

Your Congressperson
Your Senators

Subject:

Dear [ Decision Maker ],

(Edit Letter Below)

I respectfully urge you to endorse the Detainee Basic Medical Care Act of 2008 (SR 3005 or HR 5950), introduced by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) in the Senate and Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) in the House.

The Act will provide urgently needed protection for asylum seekers and other immigrants subjected to grossly inadequate health care in detention facilities operated by, or contracted to, the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Recent exposés by the Washington Post, the New York Times, and 60 Minutes confirm what health and human rights advocates have known for years:  the extraordinarily harsh circumstances of immigration detention inflict severe and unnecessary harm on detainees - and the situation is only getting worse.  According to the May 12, 2008 edition of the Washington Post, the detainee health care system now "operates with a top priority of limiting care and saving money. Its medical mission is only to keep people healthy enough to be deported."

Sadly, ICE is failing even in that inhumane mission.  Dozens have died in immigration detention in the past few years and the circumstances surrounding many of those deaths reveal an astonishing breakdown in the detention health care system.

The Detainee Basic Medical Care Act would address this outrage of medical neglect by:

- Requiring the Secretary of Homeland Security (who oversees ICE) to establish procedures for the timely and effective delivery of medical and mental health care to asylum seekers and other immigration detainees

- Ensuring that all treatment decisions are based on independent clinical judgments and that denials of requests for care can be appealed to an impartial board of medical experts

- Giving detainees with serious health conditions priority consideration for parole and alternatives to detention

- Requiring DHS to report all deaths of immigration detainees to the Office of the Inspector General and Congress

Because these and other measures in the Act will help protect the health and human rights of detained immigrants, including asylum seekers who have come the United States seeking refuge from brutality and persecution in other countries, I urge you to give your full support to the Detainee Basic Medical Care Act of 2008.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]

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