Woman detained by ICE is not getting proper medical care in a Kentucky jail, brother says

A brother of a woman detained by federal immigration agents in Louisville said she has been denied proper medical care for sickle cell anemia while being held in a Kentucky jail. 

Sarafinah Bukirwa, 31, was on her way to a sickle cell anemia conference when her brother, Isaac Kabunga, dropped her off at the Louisville airport on July 22. Kabunga recounted the interaction, as well as conversations he’s had with his sister since she has been held in the Grayson County Detention Center, in a Wednesday press conference with U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Kentucky. 

“I stayed by the cab to make sure she boarded very well. And then she was supposed to give me a call,” Kabunga said. “A few minutes later, she came out with the ICE agents, and I noticed they were putting handcuffs on her.” 

He said he asked the ICE agents why she was being arrested, and they had said she overstayed her visa. 

Bukirwa opened a nonprofit during the pandemic, Sarafinah Sickle Cell Cell Society. Under a visa, she came to the U.S. from Uganda to expand her work and applied for asylum. McGarvey said that while privacy release forms prevent him from going into specifics, Bukirwa “is doing everything the way that the rules and the laws have been laid out for her to do” and has a pending asylum claim. 

Kabunga said Bukirwa had been discharged from a Louisville hospital the day before she went to the airport after experiencing a medical “crisis.” Since she has been held in the jail, Kabunga said during a Sunday visit, that was the first day Bukirwa said she received all of her medication. Throughout the week, however, she wasn’t getting all of her prescriptions and some of it “they were diluting it in water, and then giving it to her.” 

McGarvey said an attorney for Bukirwa was filing a habeas corpus motion, which lets a person challenge their detention. The congressman’s office has also contacted ICE about Bukirwa. 

“This is one of our neighbors. This is a Louisvillian, somebody who went to the airport to fly to a conference to help other people with sickle cell anemia, who got taken away from her family and sent to a jail where we don’t know that she’s getting the medical care she needs to stay alive,” McGarvey said. “This woman has done nothing wrong. She has never been charged with so much as a speeding ticket.”

Online jail records do not list a clear charge for Bukirwa. 

Earlier this week, McGarvey joined Democrats U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, of Illinois, and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, of Wisconsin, at the Campbell County Detention Center to get a closer look at jail conditions for ICE detainees there.  

According to data from Relevant Research, the Grayson County Detention Center is holding 168 people on behalf of ICE, and of that, 138 of those people are in the non-criminal population. Throughout Kentucky, about 10 jails are housing about 1,200 people for ICE. They typically receive federal funding for housing the detainees. 

Grayson County Jailer Jason Woosley, an elected Republican, said in an email to the Lantern that federal HIPAA laws prevented him from sharing specific medical information “but I can tell you that the detainee in question is receiving all prescribed medication.” He added that McGarvey had not contacted the facility as of Thursday morning.

This story was updated with additional comments.