A 24-year-old Norwegian woman with Type 1 diabetes, Hanne Engan, endured a harrowing nine-day detention at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego County, where she said she received substandard and potentially life-threatening care. Engan, who was detained while awaiting a green card decision, described going without insulin for two days, having her blood sugar checks and insulin injections not timed to meals, and being placed in a solitary confinement cell for five days.
Her experience, detailed in an investigation by inewsource, highlights broader concerns about the quality of medical care at the facility, which has seen a surge in ambulance calls—averaging two to three per week during the first 13 months of President Donald Trump's second term. Analysis of over 100 recent 911 calls from the facility revealed a high incidence of seizures, which medical experts say could indicate poor management of chronic conditions like diabetes.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and CoreCivic, the private company running Otay Mesa, defended their care, but doctors who reviewed the case called it a textbook example of what not to do for a Type 1 diabetic. Engan's story, along with interviews with 10 former detainees, points to a systemic failure to provide adequate care for chronic illnesses in immigration detention, raising questions about the safety of such facilities for vulnerable populations.