Today On Page One
The NY Times got the placement of this article right. It's on page one, where it deserves to be.
Mr. Ng’s death follows a succession of cases that have drawn Congressional scrutiny to complaints of inadequate medical care, human rights violations and a lack of oversight in immigration detention, a rapidly growing network of publicly and privately run jails where the government held more than 300,000 people in the last year while deciding whether to deport them.
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.
When a judge finally ordered that Mr. Ng receive the medical care he obviously needed, wildly metastasised cancer was discovered. He died a few days after the diagnosis.
Now, it's clear that the condition pre-existed the detention, but the fact is Mr. Ng didn't received any medical care worth the title while he was being detained. Some pain killers were dispensed for his excruciating back pain, but even those were stopped when the 34-year old was too weak to stand up to receive them. The guards just assumed he was faking it.
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.
Go read the whole article. The details will horrify you. Then consider, as I am doing right now, what this story says about what we've become over the last seven years.
I am deeply ashamed.
Mr. Ng’s death follows a succession of cases that have drawn Congressional scrutiny to complaints of inadequate medical care, human rights violations and a lack of oversight in immigration detention, a rapidly growing network of publicly and privately run jails where the government held more than 300,000 people in the last year while deciding whether to deport them.
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.
When a judge finally ordered that Mr. Ng receive the medical care he obviously needed, wildly metastasised cancer was discovered. He died a few days after the diagnosis.
Now, it's clear that the condition pre-existed the detention, but the fact is Mr. Ng didn't received any medical care worth the title while he was being detained. Some pain killers were dispensed for his excruciating back pain, but even those were stopped when the 34-year old was too weak to stand up to receive them. The guards just assumed he was faking it.
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.
Go read the whole article. The details will horrify you. Then consider, as I am doing right now, what this story says about what we've become over the last seven years.
I am deeply ashamed.
Labels: DHS, Immigration
posted by Diane at 3:48 AM
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