U.S. cuts back on sedating deportees with Haldol

DALLAS — Federal immigration officials, over the past year, have dramatically curtailed the controversial practice of sedating deportees with powerful anti-psychotic medication.

The move followed court challenges and a public outcry over the practice, which often involved the use of Haldol, a drug used to treat schizophrenia.

Data collected through Freedom of Information Act requests by The Dallas Morning News show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement sedated only 10 people in the past fiscal year. Haldol was used in only three cases.

Over the past six years, through October, federal immigration personnel sedated 384 deportees, an average of 64 a year, the government disclosed. Of those cases, 356 involved the use of Haldol.

The documents show sedation was used disproportionately against Africans, leading some to suggest that race was a factor, which U.S. officials deny.

U.S. officials defended the sedation policy but declined to discuss it in detail, including the frequency with which sedation has been used, which led The News to request the information through the Freedom of Information Act.

U.S. officials say the procedure is done on the recommendation of medical personnel and now requires a court order — a change made when the American Civil Liberties Union began opposing the procedure and after Julie Myers, then assistant homeland-security secretary, learned of the cases.

"When we do ask the court to involuntarily sedate, it is both necessary to effectuate removal and medically appropriate," said Pat Reilly, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency within the Department of Homeland Security.

Critics said there had been no effective oversight of the process, and some continue to say the policy violates medical ethics. They praised the use of the court order and sedation restrictions.

Although the agency has dramatically reduced its use of Haldol to sedate deportees, the practice remains controversial.

Scott Allen, an internist and co-founder of the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights in Providence, R.I., said he opposes sedation except for deportees with schizophrenia or other mental illness.

"The medical community needs to assert itself and make clear the medical ethics of involuntary chemical restraint: It is not acceptable," he said.

ICE established the policy of requiring a court order for involuntary sedation of detainees during removal with "no exceptions" last January. ICE said it restated a policy from June 2007.

Myers, who resigned as assistant homeland-security secretary in November, said she moved toward a policy of "getting a court order so only in the narrowest of circumstances would we proceed like this."