Arizona opinion: ICE detainees have a constitutional right to health care

In the highly polarized moment we are experiencing right now in America, it can be easy to feel, as a member of a political “team,” that your sole guiding principle is to oppose anything supported by “the other side.”

Sometimes it is necessary to take a step back and get in touch with more fundamental values that we all agree on. These core beliefs can be especially hard to remember when they come up in the context of contentious issues, for example, anything even remotely connected to immigration and immigrants.

That is the reason why, along with several other religious leaders here in Arizona, I recently spoke up for ensuring detained immigrants access to the medical care they need. I believe this issue is simultaneously deeper and simpler than all the other debates and questions about immigration.

What is happening with health care for those in ICE detention?

There are plenty of aspects to immigration and enforcement policy that are being passionately argued in the streets, in the courts, in Congress and on the internet. But there should be no argument that all detained individuals must not be denied necessary medical attention. Everyone, if they stop to think about it and put aside pure partisanship, should be ready to stand up for this basic human right and demand an end to the preventable deaths occurring continuously right now in ICE detention.

By ICE’s own reporting, last year was the deadliest year in ICE detentions in two decades, and the pace has only quickened in 2026. While detailed investigations into these deaths are ongoing, we know from previous investigations into deaths in ICE detention from 2017-19 that 95% of those deaths have been likely preventable with proper medical care.

This harrowing reality is the result of a combination of denied and degraded access to basic medical attention for those who already need it, as well as poor conditions including overcrowding, heat, dehydration, malnutrition, lack of hygiene, stress and abuse leading to new unhealthy situations for previously healthy individuals.

Why are detainees being denied health care?

The federal administration and supporters of the immigration crackdown have justified the crackdown on the grounds of the immigrants being criminals, dangerous criminals or breaking the law simply by virtue of their immigration status. But even with that justification for detention, incarceration or deportation, criminal prisoners and detainees always have a constitutional right to have their medical needs met, whether citizen or alien, before or after trial and conviction, well established by Supreme Court precedent. As soon as any government authority takes a person into custody, removing their autonomy, then the authority is responsible for that person’s safety. This basic moral and legal principle has nothing to do with the justification for detention. And it has nothing to do with partisan affiliation or political philosophy.

How has rhetoric impacted detainee health care?

Rhetoric explaining immigration enforcement has also referred to the immigration wave as a “foreign invasion.” But if that is the case, and even if every adult and child currently being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can rightly be called a dangerous enemy combatant, then both international and U.S. law still require us to provide each and every one of them with the medical attention they need, as purported prisoners of war. The federal government is of course required to comply with those laws, and there must be consequences when they do not.

Suits brought through the justice system against a government agency take time, and international law even more so.

In the meantime, the injustice continues.

In the meantime, human beings are dying and suffering irreversible damage to their health.

In the meantime, we must make our voices heard as Democrats and Republicans, leftists, liberal centrists, conservatives and even MAGA ideologues, that this is not who we are, and it must not continue.

How does Jewish law view health care of others?

As an Orthodox rabbi, I draw on Jewish scripture and tradition in making sense of the world. Leviticus 19:16 commands: “Do not stand by the blood of your neighbor.” The sages of my tradition teach that “anyone who allows one person to die, it is as though they have destroyed an entire world.”

When I gathered with other clergy, we each came from our own traditions, our own faiths, our own relationships with humanity and with God. But when we spoke, we spoke about the individuals currently suffering, currently at risk, and currently dying because of the actions of the government that represents us as Americans. Each one of us must find our moral core, must tap into that part of us that distinguishes between right and wrong.

That place of deep truth, and not superficial labels or allegiances, must be the source of our convictions on this issue. Let us access and speak out from that righteous truth.