Fernando Viera Reyes needed a biopsy for possible prostate cancer when the Trump administration sent him to an immigration detention center in California’s Mojave Desert.
There, he waited. Reyes, now 51, made repeated requests for the procedure, according to a lawsuit filed in November against the federal government, but months went by even though there was blood in his urine — a potential sign of cancer that’s spread.
“It may have gone from very treatable to metastasized,” said Kyle Virgien, who, as a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, is involved with the lawsuit.
“There are vulnerable populations; it’s crowded. The medical care isn’t there to handle the increased number of people who are sick,” Virgien said.
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President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort has led to a record number of immigrants being held in federal detention centers, local jails, and private prisons. The situation is putting detainees’ health at risk. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is violating standards that ensure immigrants receive initial medical screenings, routine health care, and timely responses to physical complaints, according to a review of more than 200 pages of detainee lawsuits, published independent and academic research reports, and recent congressional investigations by Democrats.
Complaints about inadequate medical care at detention facilities risk adding to the political backlash Trump faces over his aggressive deportation campaign, including the killing of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. Democratic members of Congress have insisted on reining …