The U.S. immigration system has too little oversight and too much impunity. Nowhere is this more evident than in cases where people have died while in U.S. immigration custody. Secrecy is one of the worst aspects of the immigration-detention system. It explains why little is known about medical abuses and deaths in Immigration and Customs En forcement jails and prisons.
No detention standards
A New York Times report on Monday provided a glimpse behind those locked doors. Its account of several horrific deaths reflects the lack of adequate detention standards, oversight and accountability. The report describes the case of Boubacar Bah, a tailor from Guinea who overstayed his visa. He had spent nine months at a detention center in New Jersey when he apparently fell.
Afterward, he became incoherent and agitated and was written up for disobeying orders. He was shackled as he moaned and vomited on the floor of the medical unit. Then, for 13 hours, he was placed in solitary confinement and fell into a stupor, foaming at the mouth. Finally taken to a hospital, he was rushed into surgery for a skull fracture and brain hemorrhages. No one told his relatives until five days later. Bah, 52, remained in a coma until he died four months later. His relatives are still struggling to understand why he died.
What is clear is that many people had a hand in Mr. Bah's negligent treatment. The newspaper noted that guards, supervisors, federal medical staff and U.S. immigration officers all stood by as he deteriorated and was left untreated for hours. His relatives were rebuffed in their efforts to find out what had happened.
Mr. Bah's case may be extreme, but there are others like it. His is one of 66 names on a list of deaths in custody from 2004 to 2007. ICE produced the list after Congress demanded it. Even so, the list is full of errors -- perhaps an indication of the lack of respect for immigrant lives.
Notify family members
Also on the list is the Rev. Joseph Dantica, 81. A Haitian asylum seeker, he fell ill at the Krome detention facility in 2004. A medic accused him of faking illness. Five days after being detained, he died at Jackson Memorial Hospital. His family wasn't allowed to visit him in his last hours and had to sue to learn what happened.
No federal agency is required to track deaths in immigration custody, and secrecy stymies investigations of suspect deaths and medical abuses. Internal reviews by ICE are not enough.
Detention standards should be mandated and enforced. Family members should be notified when relatives become ill or die in custody. Congress should address all these issues. No federal agency should be above scrutiny.
