Immigration, detention and human rights

Whether you're for or against immigration reform, some issues transcend those political borders. The NY Times' report on deaths in detention is one of them:

Word spread quickly inside the windowless walls of the Elizabeth Detention Center, an immigration jail in New Jersey: A detainee had fallen, injured his head and become incoherent. Guards had put him in solitary confinement, and late that night, an ambulance had taken him away more dead than alive.

But outside, for five days, no official notified the family of the detainee, Boubacar Bah, a 52-year-old tailor from Guinea who had overstayed a tourist visa. When frantic relatives located him at University Hospital in Newark on Feb. 5, 2007, he was in a coma after emergency surgery for a skull fracture and multiple brain hemorrhages. He died there four months later without ever waking up, leaving family members on two continents trying to find out why.

Twelve of the 66 deaths occurred in California, and some of the listed causes are frighteningly vague (from "internal injuries [self-inflicted]" to "unresponsive"). You can view the full list here.

This isn't the first time this issue has come up, but it's really been a bad few weeks for immigration enforcement: Homeland Security is facing lawsuits over care in detention facilities, and the feds recently admitted to negligence in the death of Francisco Castaneda, who testified in front of Congress last year:

While at the San Diego Correctional Facility, he notified immigration officials that he had a large, painful, growing lesion on his penis.

Despite recommendations from several doctors, the cancer was never biopsied and Castaneda received no treatment except for pain pills during his 11 months in detention, government records indicated.

A doctor at the Division of Immigration Health Services would not admit Castaneda to a hospital, saying her agency considered it "an elective outpatient procedure."

Castaneda was released last year, went to a hospital and was diagnosed with metastatic squamous cell carcinoma. He died in February.

The pressure seems to have spurred some action: California's own Zoe Lofgren is sponsoring legislation that would set standards for healthcare and require all deaths to be reported to the Justice Department and Congress. While we're waiting for meaningful reform, check out this interactive map courtesy of the Detention Watch Network.