[NYTr] 3 Jailed Immigrants Die in a Month; ICE Denies Mistreatment

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by rick kissell

The Washington Post - Aug 15, 2007

3 Jailed Immigrants Die in a Month

Medical Mistreatment Alleged; Federal Agency Denies Claims

By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer

Three detainees died within weeks of one another while in federal 
immigration custody, adding to a toll of more than 60 who perished in 
recent years and fueling complaints of medical maltreatment from civil 
rights advocates.

The dead were a pregnant Mexican woman who lost consciousness at a 
facility in El Paso, a Mexican AIDS patient whose condition steadily 
deteriorated in a San Pedro, Calif., prison and a Brazilian whose
family implored authorities to give him medicine for his epileptic
seizures in Rhode Island, according to the American Civil Liberties
Union and published reports.

With the exception of the pregnant woman, Rosa Isela 
Contreras-Dominguez, 38, those who died were illegal immigrants being 
processed for deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a 
Department of Homeland Security division known as ICE. The two others 
were identified as Edmar Alves Araujo, 34, of Brazil and Victoria 
Arellano, 23, of Mexico.

An ICE spokesman, Marc Raimondi, acknowledged the deaths and called the 
demise of any detainee "a sad occurrence." He said his agency cannot be 
held responsible for the deaths of Contreras-Dominguez and Araujo. He 
declined to comment about the Arellano case.

ICE spends more than $98 million a year to provide "humane and safe 
detention environments" to nearly 30,000 detainees, Raimondi said.

A December report by the Office of the Inspector General for the 
Department of Homeland Security concluded that the detention system is 
generally well run but noted that four of the five facilities it
studied had "instances of non-compliance" regarding health care,
"including timely initial and responsive medical care."

At least 62 people have died in ICE custody since 2004, immigration 
officials said. Scores of others have taken ill, some complaining of 
life-threatening ailments such as cancer and gangrene infections that 
went untreated. The inspector general is investigating two detainee 
deaths, in New Mexico and Minnesota.

In recent months, the ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 
detainees in California, naming ICE and the Division of Immigrant
Health Services, which provides care to detainees, among the defendants.

"We've been saying for a long time now that we have serious concerns 
about the medical care provided to individuals in detention," said Tom 
Jawetz, a staff lawyer for the ACLU's National Prison Project.

"It's been a closed system for far too long. People are going to 
continue to die unless changes are made," Jawetz said.

Arellano, a transgender person whose given name was Victor, was the 
first to die, on July 20. She was detained in May for entering the 
country illegally for a second time.

During detention in San Pedro, attorneys said, her AIDS treatment 
lapsed. As she vomited blood, fellow inmates cared for her in vain. She 
was eventually taken to a San Pedro hospital and died while shackled to 
a bed, an attorney for the family said.

Contreras, a legal resident from Juarez, Mexico, died about a week
after entering ICE custody in El Paso on Aug. 1. She was seized for 
deportation after serving an 18-month prison sentence for bringing 65 
pounds of marijuana into the United States.

Raimondi said Contreras, who was seven weeks pregnant, was taken to an 
emergency room immediately after notifying the medical staff that she 
suffered from blood clotting. Later, after complaining of pain in her 
leg, she was taken to a hospital, where she died.

Araujo died shortly after being taken into federal custody on Aug. 7. 
His sister, Irene, said she tried to give his medication for seizures
to Woonsocket, R.I., police who detained him for a traffic violation
but they refused to accept it.

Raimondi said ICE officials called emergency medical technicians after 
Araujo showed signs of distress shortly after they detained him.