Two prominent news organizations have disclosed their investigative approach used to examine claims of inadequate medical treatment within immigration detention facilities operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the second Trump presidency.
The news outlets examined thousands of immigration-related court filings to uncover healthcare allegations from individuals held in ICE custody. Due to the absence of a complete, publicly accessible database containing medical grievances from those detained by ICE, the organizations turned to immigration court documents to locate healthcare-related accusations presented in federal court proceedings.
While these court filings are primarily intended to contest the lawfulness of someone’s detention rather than address confinement conditions, they occasionally contain claims about insufficient medical attention.
However, these legal documents aren’t always accessible to the public. Federal regulations limit public access to these petitions filed by immigration detainees. Most case information available on court websites includes only judicial orders and case summaries describing other documents. The original petitions can only be obtained through physical visits to federal courthouses nationwide. A nonprofit organization called the Immigration Justice Transparency Initiative operates Habeas Dockets, which organizes volunteers across the country to collect these documents and publish them online.
The news organizations examined case records from approximately 33,000 cases submitted by detainees between Jan. 20, 2025, and March 2026. Most cases contained only basic procedural details, including filing dates and court decisions. Only around 4,400 cases included the original petitions.
The organizations also collected several dozen additional case files from courthouses, attorneys, and the Massachusetts federal district court website, which publishes most petitions under a special court order.
Reporters conducted keyword and computer-assisted searches of court documents, including petitions, motions, and orders, looking for terms potentially indicating medical neglect, including surgery, medications, insufficient medical care, and treatment for ongoing health conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure.
The search identified approximately 500 cases that potentially contained medical neglect allegations. Multiple reporters manually examined each case, resulting in more than 300 cases that included specific accusations in sworn court documents of delayed, refused, or inadequate healthcare.
To maintain strict standards, the organizations excluded dozens of cases that claimed insufficient medical care but provided no specific details, such as a petitioner stating they were sick but not receiving proper treatment, or a judge noting that a petitioner complained about ICE ignoring medical issues. Cases were also excluded when petitioners only claimed they were denied special diets, exercise, or other health-related accommodations, such as someone with Parkinson’s disease unable to exercise properly or claims that provided food was unsuitable for diabetic patients.
The organizations noted that their analyzed cases were not randomly chosen and do not represent all immigration court filings nationwide. The allegations were not independently confirmed. Many court documents remain unavailable to the public, and not all detainees present medical concerns in court proceedings, meaning their findings provide only a partial view of the overall situation rather than a complete assessment.
