Results tagged “immigrationandcustomsenforcement”

The NY Times follows up its article about the death of an Hiu Lui Ng while in detention. The engineer who left Hong Kong at 17 overstayed his visa (his U.S.-citizen wife was trying to get him a green card), Ng was "swept into the immigration detention system" last year. His family contends his pleas for medical help were ignored for months until he died days later discovering he had a fractured spine and cancer throughout his body. Another detainee said when Ng was examined by a nurse, "She came out laughing and saying he was faking." There are calls to reform detention centers's medical care, but Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said, "Whether it’s a state prison, federal prison, you’re going to get a certain number of deaths." City Room has details on how to help the Ng family.

As more and more people are held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody as authorities decide whether to deport them, the issue of detainee treatment is becoming a bigger issue as some are dying during their waits. Today, the NY Times has the harrowing details of one man's death while in custody for over a year--it turned out he had cancer and his lawyers and family contend officials refused to believe he was sick.