ICE, Danger, and Disability
- Margaret Breihan, LMSW
- Feb 2
- 3 min read
For many people with disabilities, going to the doctor is a frequent
part of life, but in Minnesota on January 13, ICE (Immigration and
Customs Enforcement) agents thought driving to a doctor's appointment
was a threatening form of protest that needed to be stopped with aggression.
Aliya Rahman recounted her violent interaction with masked ICE agents.
“Masked agents dragged me from my car and bound me like an animal,
even after I told them that I was disabled,” Rahman recounted to the
press.
She went on to say that she was denied medical care until she lost
consciousness while held in an ICE detention cell. She thought she was
going to die.
Tragically, Rahman’s experience of violence and medical neglect is not
an isolated incident. The Vera Institute of Justice has discovered
that internal government reports and multiple lawsuits indicate that
ICE has historically failed to provide adequate medical care and
necessary communication accommodations for individuals with
disabilities who are in custody.
According to the Institute, ICE has a track record of releasing
vulnerable people with disabilities during the early hours of the
morning and dropping them off at bus stations without notifying their
lawyers or caregivers. Some of the people with disabilities who have
been released in this manner have gone missing.
Additionally, government sources reveal that in 2020, ICE repeatedly
released medically vulnerable individuals close to death to avoid
recording their deaths in custody.
Similar to the findings of the Vera Institute of Justice, Nonprofit
Quarterly reports that several individuals with hearing impairments
and deafness have died while in detention due to ICE’s failure to
provide appropriate communication methods. The report references
Kristin Garrity Sekerci and Azza Altiraifi from Al Jazeera, noting
that during the first Trump administration,“Ableism and white supremacy form[ed] the foundational framework of US immigration policy.” Given current events, it is clear that these
harmful prejudices are even more prevalent during the current Trump
administration.
While ICE’s continued disregard for the health and rights of people
with disabilities is distressing, it is important to understand that
other law enforcement agencies also regularly harm and kill people
with disabilities. According to the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit
organization focused on policy research, there is currently no
standardized method for collecting data on law enforcement
interactions with individuals with disabilities.
Research about disability and its intersection with the criminal
system is being conducted, and recent findings are sobering.
In 2024 Duke University Associate Professor Briana Brownlow, PHD ran a
study looking at the relation between mental health conditions,
racial, disparities, and arrest rates. She summarized her findings by
saying, “What we found is that even when people were at the same
symptom levels, particularly on the higher end of anger and
aggression, the arrest rates were sometimes double, triple, even 5
times higher for Black Americans, and particularly for Black men,”
The danger for people of color with disabilities continues while
incarcerated. In 2025 Researchers at the University of Chicago Crown
Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice found that,” For
neurodivergent youth of color, the odds of reporting staff physical
assault are more than twice the odds of their white, neurotypical
peers.”
Sources:
DHS Responds After ICE Drags Woman Shouting ‘I’m Disabled’ From Car
Immigration agents filmed dragging citizen from her car in Minneapolis
Understanding the Policing of Black, Disabled Bodies
ICE’s Deadly Practice of Abandoning Immigrants with Disabilities and
Mental Illnesses on the Street
The Danger ICE Poses to the Disabled Community
McCauley EJ. The Cumulative Probability of Arrest by Age 28 Years in
the United States by Disability Status, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender. AJ
Public Health. 2017 Dec;107(12):1977-1981. doi:
10.2105/AJPH.2017.304095. Epub 2017 Oct 19. PMID: 29048954; PMCID:
PMC5678390.
Law Enforcement Response to Persons with Intellectual and
Developmental Disabilities
Policing Is Killing Black Disabled People. Centering Intersectionality
Is Critical to Reducing Harm.
Media Missing the Story: Half of All Recent High Profile
Police-Related Killings Are People with Disabilities
New study finds confined neurodivergent youth of color are
particularly vulnerable to physical assault by staff
Higher arrest rates for Black adults with psychological disorders
Comments