Rebecca Swaintek-Green wrote an article for the DrexelLaw Review criticizing ICE's treatment of mentally ill migrants in detention. (Source)

First, she argued that ICE facilities are ill-equipped and unable to properly care for detainees with mental health issues. She demanded that ICE provide psychological evaluations for mentally ill migrants and argued that even “specially dangerous” migrants should not be held indefinitely and“ deserve a safer environment and a safe space to work toward rehabilitation and eventual release”:

…ICE is not capable of providing a basic level of care or meeting the basic needs of mentally ill migrants, arguably the most vulnerable population within their detention centers. This is unacceptable; these individuals deserve access to the mental health care ICE is mandated to provide, including therapists and psychiatrists

who-can adequately treat their health needs instead of solitary confinement as a last resort. Something must be done to better protect this group by giving the government the tools and the structure necessary to care for this group of individuals... 

…Additional protections are necessary to better protect mentally ill migrants subject to detention by ICE. First, currently detained migrants deserve to be detained in safer facilities that are sufficiently equipped to handle their needs, staffed with workers

trained to handle the myriad of situations that arise when caring for the mentally ill. Second, mentally ill immigrants deserve a psychological evaluation in order to determine their mental competency or ability to represent themselves in immigration court, not a decision following a few questions, well intentioned though they may be, posed by Immigration Judges. Finally, until the courts agree that even "specially dangerous"

migrants cannot be held indefinitely, those that are detained for any length of time deserve a safer environment and a safe space to work toward rehabilitation and eventual release... 

Swaintek-Green also criticized policies and practices that expanded under the Trump administration to increase the number of migrants in detention, stating “unfortunately, the Trump administration has reversed course and is instead looking to open more detention space to detain more migrants”:

…Under the Obama administration, ICE made changes to improve this dismal situation for detained migrants. Realizing that detaining individuals in a criminal prison setting for civil detention posed significant issues, ICE tried to transition to new buildings that better reflect a civil detention model.  They began detaining migrants in "converted hotels…, nursing homes, and other residential facilities. "ICE successfully reduced the number of detention contracts "from 341 to 255 by 2010" and opened "new facilities in under served areas."  Unfortunately, the Trump administration has reversed course and is instead looking to open more detention space to detain more migrants. The target daily population of detained migrants remained steady at 30,539 from fiscal year 2015 through fiscal year 2017, but that target number then jumped to 51,379 for fiscal year 2018...

Swaintek-Green proposed that mentally ill migrants should be placed in “the least restrictive setting possible” and that those facilities should be staffed by social workers and mental health professionals, rather than by “prison guards,” with the goal of “rehabilitating the noncitizen”:.

…If the noncitizen was declared to be mentally incompetent by the Immigration Judge, additional safeguards could then be used by the Immigration Judge to continue the proceedings. If the individual is represented, the team could work to keep him

or her in the least restrictive setting possible until the judge makes her final decision on the case, either granting relief to the noncitizen or ordering removal. If the noncitizen is not represented, the case manager could work to find legal counsel or to coordinate his or her family and friends to tell the noncitizen's story and advocate for him or her in front of the Immigration Judge. Additionally, the shelter staff, manned with mental health professionals and social workers instead of prison guards, would work toward rehabilitating the noncitizen and conducting an evaluation every thirty days to see whether competency has been restored and removal proceedings can continue. This is preferable over the current system, where a respondent can be forgotten for five years without any progress made toward restoration of competency…

 

…As it stands, the United States is failing to protect one of the

most vulnerable groups in our midst-mentally ill migrants. ICE facilities are ill-equipped, understaffed, and unable to properly care for this subset of its population. Many voices call for reform of the detention of mentally ill detainees; however, with the current

state of our immigration laws, certain subsets of this group will still be subject to detention. While our immigration systems are moving toward additional protections for mentally ill migrants in removal proceedings, including the provision of legal counsel at no cost to the respondents, we must take this progress a step further and implement safeguards to protect the health and well being of the mentally ill while they are in ICE custody. Before additional deaths, troublesome reports, and other issues experienced in immigration detention hijack the news cycle again, changes need to be made...

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While in law school in 2019, Rebecca Swaintek traveled to El Paso during spring break to assist asylum seekers seeking entry into the United States. During this trip, Rebecca Swaintek and her fellow law students coached asylum seekers on how to perform better in their “credible fear” interviews. The more “credible” the fears of an asylum seeker are, the more likely they are to be granted asylum: (source)

…The trip was organized by 2L Rebecca Swaintek, who recruited four other students to join her: 1L Sandra Graise, 2L Alexandra Sobieski, LLM student Max Soucat and 3L Darragh Moriarty (not photographed).

Swaintek also secured donations totaling $5,620 from the American Bar Association, the Drexel University Office of Global Engagement, the law school’s Student Bar Association and Education Law Society as well as private contributions via GoFundMe to support the students’ travels.

The students will spend much of their time in detention centers, preparing detained migrants for “credible fear” interviews that represent a pivotal moment in their efforts to secure asylum. Swaintek and two other members of the delegation are fluent in Spanish.

“These people are fleeing violence and persecution,” Swaintek said. “They don’t know who to trust.”

These interviews are a preliminary step in the lengthy process, Swaintek said, noting that it will take years before any of the individuals will be deemed eligible for asylum.

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On her LinkedIn account, Rebecca Swaintek-Green praised Drexel Law student who is working with an organization called Project Libertad to provide legal services to unaccompanied child migrants. A caption below the image read “your small donation will help me continue to fight for undocumented minors”: