Detention-Related Health Harms Among Recently Deported Central American Immigrants

Executive Summary The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains hundreds of thousands of noncitizens each year in the world’s largest immigration detention system. A recent proliferation of federal policies and funding has accelerated detention and deportation to unprecedented levels, increasing exposure to immigration enforcement across the US immigrant population. Yet despite this mass expansion, we know very little about how detention experiences may expose immigrants to unique vulnerabilities that worsen their health even after deportation. Using representative, repeated cross-sectional survey data from Central American immigrants deported from the United States between 2017 and 2019 and surveyed in the Survey of Migration in the Southern Border of Mexico (EMIF Sur), this study examines the extent to which one dimension of immigration detention — experiences of abuse and mistreatment while in the custody of US immigration authorities — is associated with self-rated health immediately following deportation. We find that experiencing physical abuse, verbal abuse, and perceived poor treatment by immigration authorities is associated with worse health among recently deported Guatemalan, Honduran, and Salvadoran immigrants. These findings suggest that immigration detention operates as a transnational carceral exposure, with health harms that extend beyond confinement and across national borders, with the potential to shape post-deportation well-being in contexts of return marked by precarity and limited access to health care. Our findings have important policy implications for protecting the health and well-being of current and formerly detained populations. As immigration detention rapidly expands, identifying strategies to mitigate its harms has become increasingly urgent. We offer the following alternatives to mitigate the health harms of detention in the United States, as well as recommendations for receiving countries to identify detention experiences as a significant health risk factor among the deported population: In the United States End the use of detention in civil immigration proceedings. Reform federal immigration law to better align with economic and human realities by expanding lawful migration pathways and reducing the grounds for deportation. Prioritize release from detention, including access to bond hearings for all detained migrants. Formally evaluate alternatives to detention that do not exacerbate harms. Adopt state and local policy reforms aimed to limit exposure to the deportation pipeline. Implement administrative oversight reforms to the detention system. In countries of return Strengthen procedures within government agencies and NGOs in countries of return to systematically document harms experienced during immigration detention. Integrate screening for immigration detention and deportation histories into public health systems to recognize these processes as a durable social determinant of health. Identify deported individuals at elevated health risk and facilitate timely connections to appropriate care and support services at the earliest possible stage of return.