Government watchdog group American Oversight filed a lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday, seeking public records to determine if the agency is providing adequate medical care to individuals in federal immigration custody.
The legal action follows a disruption in the system used to pay for offsite medical, dental, and pharmacy services for detainees under ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection supervision. For decades, the Department of Veterans Affairs processed these healthcare claims on behalf of ICE. However, the VA terminated the interagency agreement last fall to reallocate its resources.
Following the VA’s departure, ICE warned internal leadership that losing the support would delay critical medical care and put detainee health significantly at risk. To handle the transition, ICE awarded multimillion-dollar no-bid contracts to private companies Acentra and Ardent in October 2025.
Despite those awards, offsite medical providers have reported going unpaid for services rendered on or after Oct. 1, 2025. Public contracting data indicates ICE is currently seeking additional vendors to assist with processing the backlog.
American Oversight initially submitted Freedom of Information Act requests in March 2026. The requests sought data on unpaid claims, communications between ICE officials, and reports regarding how many outside healthcare providers have stopped accepting prescription requests or treatment referrals for detainees.
“ICE and CBP cannot take people into custody and then fail to provide them with adequate medical care,” said Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight. “They have a legal obligation to protect the health and safety of people in their custody, and the public has a right to know whether they are meeting that obligation.”
Chukwu added that the public deserves to know how contract funds are being used to manage the transition as immigration detention numbers expand.
Records previously obtained by the group show that the VA processed over 233,000 medical claims for ICE and CBP during the prior year. The claims covered care for severe conditions, including strokes, acute kidney failure, infectious diseases, traumatic injuries, and high-risk pregnancy care.
The lawsuit arrives amid heightened scrutiny from federal lawmakers regarding health standards in detention centers, following recent reports of delayed offsite care and growing detention populations nationwide.
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