Deaths in U.S. Immigration Detention Centers

[helderheid]

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.

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http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=304becb045438dc73a5d311a3d316455

[helderheid]

1. kick

[Madspirit]

2. k&r...n/t

[Madspirit]

3. kicking again...n/t

[helderheid]

4. thanks!!

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. I notice there is no mention of the numbers of people in custody.

It seems it must be in the multiple thousands - maybe tens of thousands.

What makes the ICE camps different from concentration camps?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

6. 283,000 flowed through in 2006, triple the total for 2001, according to the GAO

A search at http://searching.gao.gov/query.html?charset=iso-8859-1&qt=immigrant+detention brings up the source of a $$ Nina Bernstein NYT article on June 25th :

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07875.pdf (CAREFUL: 15746.6KB PDF) - "GAO-07-875 - 06 Jul 07 - GAO Report to Congressional Requesters on ALIEN DETENTION STANDARDS

Detention Facilities; ... Integrity Reliability July 2007

Background: The total number of aliens detained per year by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) increased from about 95,000 in fiscal year 2001 to 283,000 in 2006. The care and treatment of these detained aliens is a significant challenge to ICE. GAO was asked to review ICE's implementation of its detention standards for aliens in its custody. GAO reviewed (1) detention facilities' compliance with ICE's detention standards, (2) ICE's compliance review process, and (3) how detainee complaints regarding conditions of confinement are handled. To conduct its work, GAO reviewed DHS documents, interviewed program officials, and visited 23 detention ...

Topics: Homeland Security

[EFerrari]

7. Kick

[Pooka Fey]

8. K&R They may start with immigrants, but they won't stop there.

[malaise]

9. Whatever happened to America?

How inhumane is this?

[truedelphi]

10. K & R'ed