Eloy Detention Center deaths (2007)
Two detainees at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona died within a month of each other. One was a Chinese national who died of heart failure; the other was a Mexican national with a history of seizures who stopped breathing in his cell. Reports later questioned whether basic medical checks were performed at intake.
The facility's medical contractor faced criticism, and ICE reviewed its health screening standards.
The deaths contributed to a series of reports finding that medical care in immigration detention was inconsistent across facilities — a finding that persists today.
The Eloy deaths exposed the same failure mode: detainees arriving with conditions that a basic intake screening should catch, in facilities without around-the-clock clinical coverage. Saipan's small size makes it structurally similar to the under-resourced settings where these failures recur.