Five things to know about an ICE detainee's claims of medical negligence in Arizona

Here are five things to know about the story:

• The Salvadoran national, Ana Granados Sanchez, 49, said ICE ignored Banner Desert Medical Center's discharge orders, which said she’d need to follow up with the urologist within one week of the April surgery that placed the tube, a failure that an independent physician said puts Granados Sanchez at risk of permanent complications.
• Over the past month, the Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, ignored the pleas from Granados Sanchez and the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, and proceeded to deport Granados Sanchez, with her nephrostomy tube and bag still in place, on July 28.
• The urologist who installed her nephrostomy tube at Banner Desert Medical Center in April said the conditions Granados Sanchez was held in after entering ICE custody last year could be the cause of her kidney problems, she said. Granados Sanchez said she was held in a processing facility with two dozen other people, and forced to use a shared toilet with no privacy, making it difficult to relieve herself. She also wasn’t given any water at the initial processing center.
• ICE Health Services Corps, or IHSC, handles medical care at Eloy Detention Center. Despite the Star extending its deadline several times, DHS did not respond to the Star's questions before the story was published. After publication, DHS shared a statement via email: “On December 10, 2025, ICE arrested Ana Silvia Granados-Sanchez, an illegal alien from El Salvador,” the statement said in part. “She illegally entered the United States at an unknown date and time. She was removed from the United States to her home country on July 28, 2026. During her time in detention, Granados-Sanchez was closely monitored, including nursing staff regulating conducting bandage and bag changes. All illegal aliens are medically cleared before removal.” (That conflicts with Granados Sanchez’s claims that other detainees had to help her replace her bags, after they repeatedly leaked urine on her.)
• The Florence Project’s Casey said the nonprofit is looking into filing a licensing claim against the physician at Eloy who cleared Granados Sanchez for deportation, despite her pending medical needs. “Our understanding is IHSC cleared her, despite not complying with hospital-discharge instructions, despite never taking her for specialty care to reassess her kidneys and the nephrostomy tube,” said Liz Casey, Florence Project social worker. “That's not medically ethical, in our opinion.”