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ICE HAS STOPPED PAYING FOR DETAINEE MEDICAL TREATMENT  
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Judd Legum
January 20, 2026
Popular Information
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_ ICE halted payments in October, and the situation will persist for
at least several more months _

ICE headquarters building in Washington, D.C.,

 

During the second Trump administration, the population of migrants
held at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities has
exploded — from below 40,000 in January 2025 to over 73,000 today
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Under the law, ICE is required to provide necessary medical care
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While ICE employs some of its own medical staff, it often uses
third-party providers. ICE’s Buffalo Federal Detention Facility, for
example, houses over 500 detainees and has no doctor or dentist on
staff
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ICE, however, has not paid any third-party providers
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medical care for detainees since October 3, 2025. Last week, ICE
posted a notice on an obscure government website
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announcing it will not begin _processing_ such claims until at least
April 30, 2026. Until then, medical providers are instructed “to
hold all claims submissions.”

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ICE’s failure to pay its bills for months has caused some medical
providers to deny services to ICE detainees, an administration source,
who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to
the press, told Popular Information. In other cases, detainees have
allegedly been denied essential medical care by ICE
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ICE was unable to respond to a request for comment in time for
publication.

In lawsuits, numerous ICE detainees with severe illnesses allege that
they cannot obtain treatment
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For example, Viera Reyes, a detainee being held at ICE’s California
City Detention Facility, has symptoms and test results that suggest he
has prostate cancer.

But despite often being in excruciating pain, Reyes cannot obtain a
biopsy. All of his requests to see a urologist have been ignored.
Without a biopsy, Reyes has no formal diagnosis and cannot begin
chemotherapy or take other steps to slow the cancer’s progression.
Reyes was one of seven ICE detainees to sue over inhumane conditions
at the California City facility.

How did this health crisis inside ICE detention facilities begin?

Beginning in 2002, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) played a
small but critical role in providing essential medical care to ICE
detainees. When an ICE detainee needed medication or treatment that
the ICE facility could not directly provide, the VA Financial Services
Center processed reimbursement claims from pharmacies and third-party
medical providers. ICE paid the VA for this service — no resources
were diverted from veterans.

Beginning in 2023, however, the VA’s role in administering these
claims from ICE was subject to criticism by Republican officials and
right-wing media outlets. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who
introduced legislation to end the practice, falsely claimed Biden was
“robbing veterans to pay off illegals
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After Trump’s election, criticism of the VA’s role quieted down
until, on September 30, 2025, the Center to Advance Security in
America (CASA), a small right-wing nonprofit, filed a lawsuit. The
CASA lawsuit sought to compel the Trump administration to respond to a
public records request for documents regarding the VA’s role in
administering medical claims from ICE.

According to government documents
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reported by Popular Information, the VA “abruptly and instantly
terminated” its agreement with ICE on October 3. That cancellation,
according to the documents, left ICE with “no mechanism to provide
prescribed medication” and unable to “pay for medically necessary
off-site care.” Among the services ICE said it could not provide
were “dialysis, prenatal care, oncology, [and] chemotherapy.” The
documents were posted to SAM.gov on November 12 as part of ICE’s
effort to hire a private contractor to process medical claims in place
of the VA.

The situation was described by ICE as an “absolute emergency” that
needed to be resolved “immediately” to “prevent any further
medical complications or loss of life.”

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More than three months later, the situation is not resolved, and is
expected to last until the end of April, if not longer. The process of
replacing the VA, according to the administration source, has proven
very complex. Acentra, one of the companies that won the ICE contract
to replace the VA, says it will not be ready to process claims until
at least April 30. Even if Acentra meets that target date, which is
not a guarantee, claims filed on the first day may not be paid until
May 30.

In the meantime, the situation with ICE detainees has grown so dire
that the VA is now working to potentially bring its claims processing
back online temporarily, the administration source said.

Internal administration data obtained by Popular Information reveals a
massive gap in essential medical treatment for ICE detainees. The data
shows that, in 2024, the VA processed $246.42 million in medical
claims related to the treatment of ICE detainees by third parties. In
2025, despite an 82.5% increase in the daily detained population, the
VA processed just $157.2 million in claims. (The data also includes
medical reimbursements from a much smaller number of detainees held by
U.S. Customs and Border Protection.)

Assuming the medical needs of a typical ICE detainee remain constant,
the data suggests nearly a $300 million gap between needed care from
third-party providers and what ICE paid. This gap is a combination of
unpaid bills since October 3 and ICE detainees who are simply being
denied necessary medical treatment.

An investigation
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by Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) identified “85 credible reports of
medical neglect, including cases that reportedly led to
life-threatening injuries and complications,” among ICE detainees
between January 20 and August 5, 2025. The incidents included “a
heart attack after days of untreated chest pain, complications from
untreated diabetes, and denial of necessary medications and associated
complications.”

After October 3, medical care for ICE detainees almost certainly
became much worse. And it is not likely to improve anytime soon.

_Judd Legum is the founder and author of Popular Information, an
independent newsletter dedicated to accountability journalism. You can
reach him at [email protected]__._

 
 
 

 

* ICE
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* detainees
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* medical care
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* suspension
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