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Detention In America Should Not be a Death Sentence
At any given time, there are about 30,000 immigrants in detention in the United States.
And the way they are treated is a scandal.
Sometimes, they can't even get medical care for life-threatening conditions.
The great Haitian-American writer, Edwidge Danticat, has written a prize-winning book, "Brother, I'm Dying" about her uncle who perished in detention out of neglect.
She also testified about his treatment on October 4 before a House Judiciary subcommittee.
Immigration officials had taken away his medication for high blood pressure and an inflamed prostate. And even when he was vomiting they accused him of faking.
In the next issue of The Progressive, Laurel Maury tells about a man named Francisco Castañeda, who was placed in an immigration facility in early 2006. He had a lesion on his penis, but the immigration service would never let him get a biopsy for it.
When he was released almost a year later, he found out he had invasive skin cancer. He had to have his penis amputated, and he died within the year.
"It's too late for me," he testified to Congress four months before he died, at the same hearing as Danticat. But "I am not the only one who didn't get the medical care I needed. It was routine to wait weeks or months for even basic care."
On Wednesday, the New York Times reported another case of a man, named Hiu Lui Ng, who died in detention with a broken back and a body riddled with untreated cancer.
"Officials accused him of faking his condition," the Times reported. "They denied him a wheelchair." And according to affidavits filed by his family, "they carried him in shackles to a car, bruising his arms and legs."
Only five days before his death did immigration officials take him to a hospital, and only after being ordered to by a judge. There he got the terminal diagnosis.
This is outrageous.
Even if you're as anti-immigrant as Lou Dobbs, I sure hope you'll agree that detention shouldn't amount to a death sentence.
Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine.
© 2008 The Progressive
29 Comments so far
Show AllLiving in America is a death sentence.
Hoa binh
BTW What does Hoa Binh mean?
since 1492, you got that right. In America it's all about punishment. How about people who commit 3 crimes and then are sentenced to life imprisonment. Unbelievable! Or course the super rich are given special treatment when they commit crimes.
I would argue there little residual value in an f22 even were it not destroyed. Unlike highway system or even a tractor, it proudeces nothing of any value but death and destruction.
The cycle of violence of death and destruction is not a gain to society. It a loss.
Just as chemicals are toxic to our enviroment, the embrace of violence and war as a solution to our problems is toxic to our minds and souls. The very existence of weapons that are intended to kill hundreds, or thousands or hundreds of thousands at a time is poison.
They do not have to even be used. Their very existence devalues life .
In Texas they execute "getaway drivers" who were kidnapped and forced at gunpoint to drive away from the scene of the crime.
Hoa binh is Vietnamese for peace.
kent shaw,you said "In Texas they execute "getaway drivers" who were kidnapped and forced at gunpoint to drive away from the scene of the crime.". Can you give me a web site supporting this? THanks.
I say deport the illegals ASAP. But until they're gone, if they need medical attention, see that they get it.
Anything written by a Rothschild should be highly suspect. Regardless of the cover of which it is expressed!!
eyesee:
If you suspect Mr. Rothschild's work, Google is your friend. However, I'm inclined to believe him on this as run-a-muck government bureaucracy is notorious. I've been on the receiving end. If I hadn't an advocate, things could have gotten very ugly.
Eyesee, what exactly do you see? Our country has become a very unjust place. Even if you oppose illegal immigration, as I very strongly do, you have to stand up for just and humane treatment of detainees.
Gads we've become an ugly country. Eyesee, i blame people like you who stick their heads in the sand and ignore the harsh realities for much of the horror that is being performed in our names.
which demographic of society will they blame next? 'its all the jews fault, they are the ones that loan all the money' or how about 'its the blacks, they are all lazy and on welfare' or 'those pesky muslims with their praying and wierd customs' or the current most popular blame group 'its those damn immigrants, they just dont know their place'
this doesnt surprise my the least, not even regular citizens are getting healthcare these days...
this is what happens in a society that celebrates greed, corruption, privitizing public resources, and the "all for me" mentality...
Ken Mitchell August 17th, 2008 1:15 pm
kent shaw,you said "In Texas they execute "getaway drivers" who were kidnapped and forced at gunpoint to drive away from the scene of the crime.". Can you give me a web site supporting this? THanks.
________________________
Yes. I should have included the following link with my comment.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/14/usa.internationalcrime
Immigration laws are a confusing mess. I say open the borders. Going from one country to another should be as easy as going from one state to another.
Much more of this restrictive, punitive, spying government we have and travel to the next county will be a hassle.
kent shaw, thanks. Passed this on.
Can't remember where I found it, but a legal immigrant was in "quarantine" in the D.C. area and they "prescribed" her risperdal, an atypical antipsychotic. She had a horrendously bad reaction to it and the doctor's solution was to give her a higher dose. She wasn't a psychiatric patient, either. Anyone else remember something about this?
Consider all the cancers, much going untreated. How much is the DIRECT result of contact with toxic substances now substantial presences in food, air, water and soil? People are unwittingly involved in a huge guinea pig experiment brought to us by big chem.
HOMEWARD ANGEL: You left off something critical--the price of endless war. The true loss of our nation's fiscal resources comes from military excess, over 700 bases, an endless supply of weapons systems being created, designed, maintained or deployed. The killing fields are costly, indeed, and the karmic check has not yet beed paid.
Siouxrose, it is not only the "karmic" costs: military expenditures are total lost money with virtually no residual value.
Example: If one borrows money and builds a road for 328 Million (the cost of ONE F22(we've ordered 138 of them)), the road remains for her children and grandchildren. When the F22 is destroyed, there is no value left.
It is a great business, even better profits than oil.
Bushrod - not to mention all that the F22 has destroyed that was of value, including people.
Infinitely long detention as a form of American torture has been going on for decades. The old bare common rooms where innocent men and women landed for years were below the worst prisons for U.S. cons. Basically, torture and a complete loss of human contact are ways that the INS forces people to make terrible personal choices, when otherwise they would have human rights. This has been true during my lifetime.
Just about what you'd expect in an unrepentant genocidal Aryan slave empire that got away with it. Humans are food here and nothing else. After consumption they are manure. Basic core American values: Beat them into submission, torture them for the music of their screams, and make them into profits. Resident or immigrant, same system, same methods, same results - Profits.
Red, White, & Blue - Red is for the blood of our victims. White is for our Aryan Purity and our White washing of history. And Blue is for the blood of our precious Oligarchy that America will die to defend. And die it shall. Soon. Very soon.
There is no bottom anymore and we are going there. If your shrink has any meds for terminal horror, stock up, you'll take care of yourself and make a killing selling any excess. I did say stock up - fill the garage. It's going to be very bad. Think Hootu's and Tootsies. Horror like you got to go to Gaza to see or the back rooms at Baghram. And all of it done by Americans to Americans....
This is just another example of the indifference of the corporate ruling elite.
They care little for the suffering they cause other human beings. The ruling elite are amoral at best.
BTW the corporate ruling elite are supported by the corporate religious ruling elite. Whatever pain and suffering that is caused is supported by the religious doctrines of the corporate church.
In this country the people of "faith," as they like to call themselves, sure are a cruel, vindictive bunch. Notice how quickly they take the super power to war and kill defenseless people with the world's most powerful weapons and military while claiming to be "pro-life." I guess they didn't read the Ten Commandments where it says "Thou Shalt Not Kill."
In Amerika:
Injured and sick prisoners are: accused of faking.
Injured and sick immigrant detainees are: accused of faking by imigration officials.
Anyone making an insurance claim is: accused of faking by the Insurance Companies.
Anyone who applies for social security disability is: accused of faking by the Social Security Administration.
Those Fascists sure are filled with suspicion!
Do they think everyone lies as much as they do?
Revengegirl: yes.
I'm dissapointed that the article here seems to overfocus on the illness-while-in-detention point without making the obvious point that cancer treatment in the US - especially for the vast majority of immigrants who lack access to viable healthcare options by working for cash - is virtually unattainable, even with health insurance.
The point being that while detainees should not be detained in the first place and if so should be treated humanely and given access to adequate healthcare, one (m. rothschild)should be careful not to paint a picture that suggests that the healthcare situation outside detention is better by default when there is no proof for such in the majority of cancer cases.....for citizens and non-citizens alike.
an underlying message in the article should also be that that "Health 'Care' in America Should not be a Death Sentence".
Perhaps it is the blatant absence of the notion treating healthcare as a human right that is a fundamental contributor to the phenomenon that this article describes.
Let's remember that Americans live in a country where 18,000 (reported deaths mind you; calculate in undocumented immigrants and the urban poor and the number undoubtedly skyrockets) people die in their homes every year because they do not get the health care they need.
For imprisoning and maltreating people, cheer the US of Zionism for the gold.
Winners in the world safe for billionaires and Corporations bold.
Losing nations get gaoled by US bases, and the US is so full of gaols,
Living hell of full black holes, for late comers, so democracy fails.
Gold for the deceits of soldiers, a Medal for slaughter with intent.
Play national anthems for the lies of war, while corpses still are silent.
The wounded, if they live with half a brain or body intact.
Must live on charity, with a lifetime of torture on the medical rack.
Buried in rubble, rubbish of mangled bones and soil,
Lie millions of mass graves pierced by pipes which pump black oil,
Nano potent and residued everywhere, lie weapons of mass destruction for real.
Life exploded into death, for global profiteers who will not feel.
The olympic cheering of massed humans beings all still together tick
From nations growing massive with new babies and eating the world sick,
So many are now falling off at the edges of life support,
What will happen when all collapses, should we give it some thought?
GWNORTH: Thank you for pointing out what possession of "rods of god" mean to the souls within this nation.
LILULU: That's the dark irony, isn't it? One that the whole ruckus around anti-abortion is designed to "fig leaf."
BUSHROD: I have ranted about the other costs many times in this forum, only an idiot would be oblivious to those.
kent shaw August 17th, 2008 2:57 pm
Neither Foster or Woods have been executed. You are correct in your accessment of the "parties",law it needs to be redressed just as the three strikes law does.
Nietzsche August 17th, 2008 4:00 pm
Talk about surprise. I never figured you for a supporter of Corporate greed, oppressing poor ignorant laborers, sex slavery or child labor.
To those that insist on calling illegal immigrants, immigrants...you just help the same causes.
There have been some real problems here in Texas, especially with the families in detention (the Hondo facility). It getting straightened out (I think)but the medical care has been adequate as far as we can tell. The biggest problem is they are overwhealming the assets available for the problem.
An epic emergency exists in Mexico that is forcing people to flee for their lives to our country and we don't offer them safe haven - what has happened to the spirit of America?
bigtree August 19th, 2008 1:07 am
The spirit of America is just fine. But we simply cannot absorb every person in the world that has a problem. Perhaps the Mexicans need to solve their own problems.
Two states have already made a start by having open trials and shifting the burden of guilt to the state rather than the accused. Perhaps eliminating secret trials will go a long way in helping them.