Immigration Law

"FAKING" DETAINEE DIES IN HORRIBLE PAIN IN ICE CUSTODY

By Greg Siskind

The New York Times reports this morning on the death of a Hong Kong-born detainee who came to the US as a teenager in 1992 and who was married to a US citizen and the father of two American citizen children. Hiu Liu Ng was not a criminal. He had overstayed a visa and was put in detention, according to the story, when he was in the middle of green card processing. Here are some of the important details reported in the story:

In April, Mr. Ng began complaining of excruciating back pain. By mid-July, he could no longer walk or stand. And last Wednesday, two days after his 34th birthday, he died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a Rhode Island hospital, his spine fractured and his body riddled with cancer that had gone undiagnosed and untreated for months.

***

In federal court affidavits, Mr. Ng?s lawyers contend that when he complained of severe pain that did not respond to analgesics, and grew too weak to walk or even stand to call his family from a detention pay phone, officials accused him of faking his condition. They denied him a wheelchair and refused pleas for an independent medical evaluation.

Instead, the affidavits say, guards at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., dragged him from his bed on July 30, carried him in shackles to a car, bruising his arms and legs, and drove him two hours to a federal lockup in Hartford, where an immigration officer pressured him to withdraw all pending appeals of his case and accept deportation.

?For this desperately sick, vulnerable person, this was torture,? said Theodore N. Cox, one of Mr. Ng?s lawyers, adding that they want to see a videotape of the transport made by guards.

Immigration and detention officials would not discuss the case, saying the matter was under internal investigation. But in response to a relative of Mr. Ng?s who had begged that he be checked for a spinal injury or fractures, the Wyatt detention center?s director of nursing, Ben Candelaria, replied in a July 16 e-mail message that Mr. Ng was receiving appropriate care for ?chronic back pain.? He added, ?We treat each and every detainee in our custody with the same high level of quality, professional care possible.?

It is hard enough to read this story. It would be easier to absorb the news if we could dismiss what happened as an isolated incident. But those of you who read this blog know that there have been numerous other examples and that the problem of detainee health care is so great that there have been congressional hearings. Obviously, ICE still has not adequately addressed the issue.

Incidentally, some may be wondering how Mr. Ng ended up in deportation proceedings since he was married to a US citizen. The Times reports that he entered on a tourist visa, then later applied for political asylum. The asylum application was denied and Mr. Ng was placed in deportation proceedings several years later. Unfortunately, his notice of his deportation hearing was sent to an incorrect address and he was ordered deported without ever getting the opportunity to defend his case. Sadly, he would have probably had a very good claim to stay in the US due to his being married and having children and having been in the US for more than ten years.

Full post as published by Greg Siskind's Blog on August 13, 2008 (boomark / email).