The Washington Post as part of a four-day series, titled "Careless Detention," is examining how some immigrants to the U.S. do not receive needed health care while in immigration detention centers.
According to the Post, on a given day there are about 33,000 undocumented immigrants in custody of the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Detainees, "by law and regulation," are "entitled to medical services if they are sick," the Post reports.
According to the Post, the centers are "an upside-down world where patients have no say, doctors and nurses on site have little power to administer timely treatment, and a managed care system in Washington operates from a rulebook that emphasizes what is not covered rather than what is" (Goldstein/Priest, Washington Post, 5/12). A Post investigation of the system "found a hidden world of flawed medical judgments, faulty administrative practices, neglectful guards, ill-trained technicians, sloppy record-keeping, lost medical files and dangerous staff shortages."
The Post on Sunday in the first article of the series examined how the "medical neglect" that some detainees experience is "part of the hidden human cost of increasingly strict policies in the post-Sept. 11., [2001,] U.S. and a lack of preparation for the impact of those policies." The Post profiles several detainees who died after they were denied care or did not receive timely care (Priest/Goldstein, Washington Post, 5/11).
The Post on Monday in the second article of the series profiled Yong Sun Harvill, a 52-year-old immigrant from South Korea who is fighting deportation and whose "journey through immigration detention provides a glimpse into a medical system that often fails those who need it most." Harvill has been unable to get a biopsy to determine if spots on her liver are tumors, and she has an undiagnosed, growing lump on her left knee, the same knee that developed sarcoma years earlier. She also is unable to get a leg pump, which she used before being detained, to relieve swelling and increase circulation in her swollen leg (Washington Post, 5/12).
In conjunction with the Post series, CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday reported on medical care for detained immigrants. The segment examines the cases of Rev. Joseph Dantica, an immigrant who died of pancreatitis while detained; Juan Guevera, a detainee who died of a brain aneurysm; Amina Mudey, an immigrant who allegedly was misdiagnosed as psychotic while being detained; and Francisco Castaneda, an immigrant who died of cancer while in detention (Pelley, "60 Minutes," CBS, 5/11).
Letters to the Editor Respond to New York Times Investigation on Immigrants Who Die in Detention Centers
The New York Times recently published letters to the editor in response to an article on immigrant deaths in U.S. detention centers and a bill (HR 5950), introduced on Tuesday by House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), that would establish mandatory standards for medical care for immigrants in detention centers. Summaries appear below.