new america media - Deaths in U.S. Immigration Detention Centers

Deaths in U.S. Immigration Detention Centers

Independent Press Association Stories That Must Be Heard & Carib News, News Report, Tony Best, Posted: Jul 17, 2007

Editor's Note: Sixty-two immigrants held on immigration charges have died in the last three years, focusing attention on the quality of health care in Homeland Security detention facilities.

NEW YORK – The death of a Bajan in U.S. custody is helping to focus national and international attention on the poor treatment of immigrants caught up in the dragnet across the country.

Sandra Kenley, who was returning home in the United States after visiting Barbados two years ago, was apprehended at Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C., but died in custody after being detained for several weeks at Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Portsmouth, Virginia. According to inmates and others at the detention center, the Barbadian had repeatedly complained that the authorities weren’t providing her with the much-needed medication for her high blood pressure and other illnesses.

Now, her death and those of scores of other immigrants who were being detained by the United States are the subject of national scrutiny. In all, 62 immigrants have died in detention in the past three years. Members of Congress, government officials, immigration advocates and the media are complaining about the poor conditions under which the foreign nationals are being held and the inadequate health care provided to them by the Department of Homeland Security. In addition, federal authorities are being accused of trying to conceal the accurate numbers of deaths of people in custody, failing to provide access to legal help and of not dealing effectively with detainees who may be suicidal.

The problem has attracted the attention of United Nations human rights monitors, and the death of the Bajan is believed to be among reports submitted for study by the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants.

Critics of the Department of Homeland Security are citing the case of the Barbadian and that of a Korean woman Young Sook Kim, who died of pancreatic cancer on September 11, 2005 after pleading for several weeks for medial care while in detention.

There is also the case of Abdoulai Sall, 50, a taxicab mechanic in Washington who died in detention last December. Actually, Sall was being interviewed for a green card in the presence of his attorney when he was unexpectedly arrested by an immigration official for an old deportation order. The African was suffering from kidney problems.

The treatment of migrants and the deaths, which are now coming to light, have triggered outrage.

“The Department of Homeland Security has made it difficult, if not impossible, to meet the constitutional requirements of providing adequate health care to inmates that have a serious need for that care,” complained Thomas Hogan, York County Prison Warden in Pennsylvania.

But Jamie Zuieback, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, responded to the death of the Bajan, Korean, African and others by saying, “We spend $98 million annually to provide medical care for people in our custody. Anybody who violates our national immigration laws is going to get the same treatment by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) regardless of their medical condition.”

The Bajan found herself in detention because of prior convictions for possession of small amounts of cocaine in 1984 for personal use and for attempting to buy illegal drugs in 2002, again for personal use, not for distribution. Kenley, a permanent resident for at least 30 years, was initially detained and questioned in Washington D.C. when she arrived at Dulles International Airport from Barbados with her one-year-old granddaughter.

Kenley, whose case is receiving national media attention spurred by a front page story in the July 2 issue of New York Times, was initially released, but ordered to return to answer questions about her minor drug convictions, which were misdemeanors but made her subject to deportation.

When she returned, Kenley admitted the drug convictions but insisted she had changed her life of drug addiction. She had been drug free for three years, had completed a nursing course and had gained legal custody of a grand daughter. She also explained, according to government documents, that she was taking blood pressure medication and suffered from a fibroid tumor and uterine bleeding. She was due to undergo surgery. However, an inspector abruptly detained the Barbadian on the grounds that she could be deported.

After her death a post mortem examination attributed the cause of death to an enlarged heart from chronic hypertensions; however, emergency medical services issued a report stating that Kenley had fallen from the top bunk of a bed and that other detainees in her cell had called out for help and pounded on the door for 20 minutes before any guards responded.

June Everett, Kenley’s sister, said that the cause of death remained a mystery. “How did my sister die? It’s a whole set of confusion, so who knows, really,” said Everett. “I wouldn’t like to know.”

In a letter written to her sister shortly before she died, Kenley complained, “I am barely living. I am trying to hold on until you get a lawyer to help me.” Death came before the lawyer arrived. Indeed, her only court appearance was by video monitor as she waited for a volunteer attorney to turn up. He never came.

Copyright © Pacific News Service