She Fled Persecution and Survived Cancer. Now She Could Die From Medical Neglect in ICE Facilities.

Katsiaryna Bartko escaped from Belarus after participating in pro-democracy activism, which put her at risk of arrest and persecution. She entered the US legally and filed for asylum; her case is still being considered. In the meantime, ICE rounded her up and detained her.

She has now been in ICE detention for months. Doctors and her partner are concerned she may die there - because ICE staff have been denying her the vital medications she needs to survive.

Sign the petition to demand that ICE immediately release Katsiaryna Bartko back to her partner and the life she has created in the US!

Katsiaryna developed cancer years ago, likely due to the effects of the lingering radiation from the Chernobyl disaster in neighboring Ukraine. To save her life, doctors had to remove her thyroid and parathyroid. But without a fully-functioning endocrine system, she now requires daily medications in order to survive. If her medications are interrupted, her hormones and calcium levels can quickly become dangerous, leading to seizures, heart problems, difficulty speaking or controlling her throat, and ultimately, even to a fatal coma.

Despite this, ICE staff have continually been lax with delivering her medications, sometimes withholding them for days at a time. Out of the 7 different referrals she received to see specialist doctors, ICE failed to complete even a single one. Predictably, this has already had serious consequences. In a period of only 4 days in June, she required 3 visits to a hospital emergency room. Her TSH hormone levels have climbed to 33 times the normal maximum range.

More recently - around September 8, 2026 - Katsiaryna again requested to go to a hospital, but nurses refused, writing that she was in "no distress." Staff removed access to her tablet and stopped allowing her calls or messages with the outside world. By September 13, staff finally took her to a hospital. They did not inform either her attorneys or partner, who learned about the hospitalization accidentally, and refused to share the name of the hospital.

Outside experts, including a Harvard professor of medicine, and a doctor with the organization Physicians for Human Rights, have now both weighed in, expressing their concern for Katsiaryna's life and reiterating the danger that she could go into a myxedema crisis or coma and never reawaken.

This follows a larger pattern of reported medical neglect and abuse at ICE facilities. No one deserves to suffer in this way. Sign the petition to demand that ICE immediately release Katsiaryna Bartko back to her partner in the US!