Cancer patient, untreated in DHS custody, dies
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008I wondered how to title this entry. “Man tortured to death by DHS” seemed like one obvious choice. “Legal resident of the U.S. dies in Kafkaesque nightmare” would have been accurate too. You can decide for yourself.
A Hong Kong computer programmer who had legally resided in the US for 15 years (since he was 17) and fathered two American children went for his final green card interview and was locked up, detained until he was nearly dead of cancer that the DHS refused to treat him for. He had overstayed a visa (the DHS sent a key notice to the wrong address), and this prompted the DHS to lock him away and demand that he waive all right to immigration appeal and be immediately deported.
Oh, but there’s more. They refused to allow his wife and children to visit him as he lay dying. He got no pain medication. Apparently his jailers (private contractors, unsurprisingly) decided he was faking. Finally a court ordered him released, and he died five days later.
Does this make you feel any safer?
