Noah Nehemiah Gillespie · July 2013
81 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1329 (2013)
Despite recent improvements, the level of medical care that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) provides to detainees in its custody remains poor. This lack of effective care has a particularly harsh impact on HIV-positive detainees, who must have consistent access to antiretroviral medications and other basic treatments to stem the progression of that disease. This Note argues that although the United States has obligated itself under the United Nations Convention Against Torture to provide minimally adequate medical care and to guarantee an adequate remedy for any failure to provide such care, no effective remedy is yet available under United States law. This Note proposes a federal statute that accomplishes two goals. First, the statute would require ICE to implement binding regulations that will guarantee essential treatment to HIV-positive detainees. Second, the statute would provide a private right of action to detainees against those ICE agents who fail to conform to these regulations.
