Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not paid outside medical providers for detainee care for nearly a year, according to an investigative report, and advocates believe the move is intentional neglect.

The Department of Veterans Affairs abruptly ended a longstanding arrangement to process ICE's medical claims Oct. 3, 2025, the San Francisco Chronicle found, and the lapse, coinciding with record detention numbers and a $104 billion ICE budget, has left hospitals and ambulance services owed millions and contributed to delayed or canceled care for detainees with serious conditions.

The VA severed the agreement after pressure from Republicans who argued it diverted resources from veterans, despite VA officials noting ICE reimbursed the department for the work.

ICE has since called the resulting gap an "absolute emergency" and hired a new vendor, Acentra Health, under a $67.5 million contract to rebuild its claims system — but as of August, the system still wasn't operating.

An internal ICE directive obtained by the Chronicle instructed staff to limit offsite care to emergencies and directed detention centers to transport detainees to hospitals themselves, anticipating ambulance companies might refuse uncompensated calls.

Reporters identified at least eight detainees whose care was delayed or denied in ways independent physicians said endangered their health, including a Los Angeles man with recurring throat cancer who waited months for an oncology referral, and an asylum seeker whose seizures went unmanaged after medication lapses tied to his brain tumor.

Advocacy groups have taken to calling the situation a "death policy," and Adina Applebaum of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights told the Chronicle the lack of care reflects "a deliberate policy choice, not an accident."

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson disputed that characterization, saying detainees retain access to on-site care, emergency treatment and offsite specialty referrals, and that scheduling delays are common and outside the agency's control.

The payment breakdown has also led some facilities to bill detainees directly for care, despite ICE detention standards requiring free medical treatment.

The Chronicle documented cases including a $634 blood test charge and a $17,210 hospital bill for emergency gallbladder surgery performed on a detainee handcuffed to his bed.

Legal experts, including UC Berkeley law dean Erwin Chemerinsky, said federal law requires the government to cover medical costs for people in its custody, calling the billing practice unconstitutional.

Two House Democrats, Reps. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) and Mark Takano (D-CA), have asked Homeland Security to investigate the lapse, citing what they described as a rise in detainee deaths and health complications.

A former ICE official said oversight of improper billing has weakened since staff cuts to the agency's civil rights office, calling the failures a "systemwide problem."

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) claimed Wednesday that the Justice Department is investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and members of her family.

Comer dropped the bombshell Wednesday during an appearance on conservative commentator Benny Johnson’s show. Johnson teed up the conversation by declaring that prosecuting Omar would be “the single greatest prosecution” of his lifetime before asking Comer whether he believed she had committed fraud.

“From everything that I’m reading and everything I’ve been told, Omar is one of those in the crosshairs,” Comer replied.

The MAGA lawmaker did not elaborate on any active criminal investigation. But he went on to claim that Justice Department officials told him the scrutiny extends beyond the Minnesota Democrat herself.

“I do know from the Blanche Department of Justice that they are investigating the entire Omar family,” Comer said Wednesday, adding that he believed "her husband committed fraud."

Comer also noted an inquiry his committee previously considered involving Omar’s financial disclosure forms and federal funding she sought for certain projects.

“You saw her financial disclosure form, and the discrepancy was on a winery in Minnesota and a couple of other projects where she had tried to get earmarks for things that would have benefited the Somali community that have already been identified as committing fraud in Minnesota,” the Trump ally said.

According to Comer, House rules prevented the Oversight Committee from pursuing the matter because investigations of sitting lawmakers fall under the House Ethics Committee. But Comer didn’t expect that committee to move quickly.

“Waiting on the Ethics Committee is like waiting on the U.S. Senate to do anything,” Comer said.

Voters erupted at a Texas commissioners' meeting as Republican officials cut nearly a third of the polling places in a battleground county that Democrats have started to win.

On Tuesday, the Tarrant County Commissioners Court voted 3-2 along party lines to approve 224 Election Day polling sites for November, down from 316 in the 2022 midterms, reported the Texas Tribune.

More than 100 speakers testified during a meeting that ran more than eight hours, and most of them opposed the cuts, the Tribune reported.

One Tarrant County resident spent his allotted minute at the microphone demanding that County Judge Tim O'Hare, a Republican, look up from the dais and meet his eyes.

"What could possibly be so important? Mr. O'Hare, can you listen to me, please? Hello?" the resident said.

"Yeah," O'Hare answered.

"Can you look at my eyes, please?" the resident pressed.

"I can hear every word you're saying. You can use your minute however you want to," O'Hare replied.

"Yeah. Look down because…" the man continued.

"I'm going to," the county judge snapped.

"Down is [where] you're going in November," the resident shot back, drawing laughter from the room. "So keep looking where you're going. Okay?"

"We're going, and we're knocking on doors, and we're bringing people out," he said. "And we're telling them where the voter locations are, and we're helping them get there, and nothing you can do can stop us from removing you in November."

Jen Rice, a journalist covering Texas politics, posted video of the exchange on Bluesky, where it circulated widely Tuesday evening.

Commissioners did not vote until after 5 p.m., the Tribune reported. Attendees still in the room began chanting "shame" the moment it passed.

O'Hare had already ordered sheriff's deputies to remove three attendees earlier in the day, according to the Tribune. A sheriff's office spokesperson told the Fort Worth Report that no arrests were made.

The list of commissioners-approved sites removes 92 Election Day sites in a county where more than 1.3 million people are registered to vote, the Tribune reported. Tarrant County has been a Republican stronghold for decades, but Democrats have narrowly carried the top of the statewide ballot there in recent elections, according to the Tribune.

Democratic state Sen. Taylor Rehmet then won a Tarrant County seat outright in a January special election runoff, beating Republican Leigh Wambsganss 57% to 43% in a district President Donald Trump had carried by 17 points, CNN reported.

Democratic Commissioner Alisa Simmons rejected the argument that the cuts were about money, according to the Tribune.

"It's not about cost. This is about power. This is very political. This is campaigning from the dais," Simmons said, the Tribune reported.

Cynnamon Hall told commissioners the cuts fall hardest on Black and brown neighborhoods, including Fort Worth's 76104 ZIP code, which is left without a single site, the Tribune reported.

"If you accept this, you're basically saying that our votes don't matter," Hall said, according to the Tribune.

Commissioners were supposed to settle the list in early August but tabled it after agreeing Ludwig's first proposal, with 176 sites, cut too deeply, the Tribune reported. One speaker at that meeting, former Democratic state Rep. Lon Burnam, was arrested and carried out by his ankles and wrists.

Simmons appeared Sunday with state Rep. James Talarico, an Austin Democrat running for U.S. Senate, outside a building that had been a polling place, according to Let's Address Texas.

"The most powerful people in this country don't want us to be able to vote easily," Talarico said, the outlet reported.

Simmons is on the November ballot herself, running against O'Hare for county judge, the Tribune reported.

Election Day is Nov. 3, and early voting runs Oct. 19-30, the Tribune reported. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 5.

Happening now in TX: Voters in battleground Tarrant County are telling GOP local officials what they think of their plan to cut 30% of voting locations this year“Nothing you can do can stop us from removing you in November”

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— Jen Rice (@jenrice.bsky.social) September 1, 2026 at 4:03 PM