At a congressional briefing on July 9, 2007, sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union and hosted by Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn, human rights advocates described the problems with access to medical care for immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Source: Scripps Howard Foundation Wire via AXcess News

Jailed immigrants lack adequate health care, rights groups say
By Hana Bieliauskas

(AXcess News) Washington - Maria Inamagua, an illegal immigrant from Ecuador, was awaiting deportation in the Ramsey County Jail in St. Paul, Minn., in April 2006 when she began complaining of severe headaches and dizziness.

Five weeks later, Inamagua, 30, was dead. She received only Tylenol for her pain. One afternoon, she fainted after hitting her head while getting down from her bunk. Jail medical officials observed her worsening condition for four hours before taking her to Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

Doctors diagnosed that oxygen-depriving parasites were attacking her brain. Soon, Inamagua's coma and brain damage were irreversible.

Michele Garnett McKenzie, program director for Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, told Inamagua's story at a congressional briefing Monday sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union and hosted by Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn.

An investigation into Inamagua's death by the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General is underway in Minnesota, McKenzie said.

Inamagua is one of 62 immigrants since 2004 to die in detention facilities run by or hired by the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement. No one has been charged with these deaths.

Jamie Zuieback, an ICE spokeswoman, said ICE spent $29 million from 2004 to 2006 to provide health care for detainees. She said ICE doesn't believe immigrants should get a pass because they're ill.

"If you are ill, we have a moral obligation to provide quality care to you, and we do that," Zuieback said.

She said she could not comment on individual cases.

Officials at the Ramsey County Jail did not respond to a request for comment.
McKenzie said the purpose of immigration detention is different from the corrections system because most are not dangerous. Immigrants are considered civil detainees because they are not serving a criminal sentence. However, many are held for months, or even years, in county jails and a few facilities run by the DHS across the country.

The federal government contracts with local jails to hold immigrants in facilities that are often unsuited for long-term detentions, McKenzie said.

Most pre-trail detainees stay in the Ramsey County jail for four days, but those held on immigration charges average 100, McKenzie said.

Zuieback said ICE has reduced detainees' stays from an average of 90 days to 30.

More than 27,500 people are held daily, and nearly 300,000 each year, while the government decides whether they should be deported. This year, more than 284,000 immigrants have been detained, Zuieback said.

"This year we have already had more people through our custody than in all of last year," Zuieback said, "And we've had two deaths."

McKenzie also spoke of Cynthia Lamah, 31, who she said was also denied medical care while being held in Ramsey County in August 2005.

Lamah, a Cameroon native, was four months pregnant with her second child when ICE detained her to await deportation.

A week later, Lamah was taken to the emergency room after experiencing intense cramps and bleeding. Two weeks later, she again experienced dizziness, back pain, vaginal cramps and bleeding, but was denied medical care, and she miscarried in jail, McKenzie said.

Lamah was soon deported without being allowed to attend her child's funeral. She is now living in West Africa, but her husband lives in Brooklyn Center, Minn., with their surviving child.

"The cases of Cynthia and Maria are among the dozens of failures of the immigration system to adequately address urgent, critical health conditions of the thousands of people in ICE care and custody each day," McKenzie said.

The ACLU said ICE's standards for care aren't enforceable.

"The standards do not apply to detainees held in Bureau of Prisons facilities, and ICE has been incredibly slow to ensure compliance at all of its facilities, including local and county jails, contract detention facilities and service processing centers," said Tom Jawetz, immigration detention staff attorney for the ACLU National Prison Project.

Zuieback said this is not true. She said facilities are inspected at least once a year to ensure standards are being enforced.

In June, the Senate unanimously approved an amendment to the immigration bill introduced by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, Ind.-Conn., and Sam Brownbeck, R-Kan., that would have provided protections for asylum seekers in detention. That provision was lost when the Senate rejected the comprehensive immigration bill.

ACLU legal consultant Max Sevilla said the loss of the Lieberman-Brownbeck amendment means a narrower, piecemeal approach will be needed to improve and codify immigration detention standards as well as increase oversight to ensure safe and humane treatment for detainees.

Ellison, who did not attend the briefing, said in a statement that he hoped it would contribute to a serious dialogue about how to ensure standards for medical care are improved and Congress has a better oversight of detention facilities.