OTAY MESA, Calif. (KGTV) — After discovering Nebane Abienwi had a stroke at the Otay Mesa Detention Center near the San Diego-Mexico border, it took over 50 minutes for paramedics to arrive to see the migrant from Cameroon.
The reason, according to records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by researchers, is that the on-call medical provider at the privately owned detention facility didn’t respond to a nurse’s request for authorization to call an ambulance.
“It took an extraordinary long period of time for emergency care to actually arrive to provide him care that could have saved his life,” said Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s national prison project.
Abienwi is one of 52 migrants who died in an ICE detention facility from 2017 to 2021, according to the ACLU.
A new study from the group, along with American Oversight and Physicians for Human Rights, found 95% of the deaths across the country could have been prevented with adequate medical care.
In the case of Abienwi, Cho said independent medical experts who reviewed his medical file, concluded the death was avoidable.
“He had actually been hospitalized the week before, and this should have really alerted medical staff to the fact that he might be in some sort of medical distress,” she said in an interview from Washington.
Abienwi is one of four migrants who died at the Otay Mesa Detention Center from 2017 to 2024. The facility is owned by CoreCivic.
Their reported causes of death ranged from complications with heart surgery, to respiratory failure and pneumonia.
In Abienwi’s case, the official reported cause of death was a hypertensive basal ganglia hemorrhage.
ICE says migrants get 24-hour emergent care
Company spokesman Brian Todd said CoreCivic didn’t provide medical services at the facility until Sept. 2020, which was after three of the deaths mentioned in the report. Prior to that, he said the ICE Health Service Corps was responsible for contracting, staffing and oversight of health services at the center.
Todd said all detainees now have access to medical care and mental health services daily.
“Our clinic is staffed with licensed, credentialed doctors, nurses and mental health professionals who contractually meet the highest standards of care as verified by multiple audits and inspections,” he said in an email.
An ICE spokesperson responded to the study in a prepared statement and said any death in custody is one too many.
“It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment a non-citizen enters ICE custody,” the spokesperson said. “This includes medical, dental, and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. At no time during detention is a detained individual denied emergent care.”
