Immigrants in Custody: Death in a Black Hole
The New York Times has a heart-wrenching, outrage-inducing story today on the opaque nature of the immigrant detention system—even after the person in custody dies. The article details how Boubacar Bah, a 52-year-old tailor from Guinea who had overstayed a tourist visa suffered an unexplained brain fracture, became comatose and lay unconscious in a hospital for days before relatives were notified. “He died there four months later without ever waking up,” the reporter writes, “leaving family members on two continents trying to find out why.”
The Times notes that the questions surrounding immigrant deaths in detention far exceed those of other types of imprisonment:
“Death is a reality in any jail, and the medical neglect of inmates is a perennial issue. But far more than in the criminal justice system, immigration detainees and their families lack basic ways to get answers when things go wrong.
No government body is required to keep track of deaths and publicly report them. No independent inquiry is mandated. And often relatives who try to investigate the treatment of those who died say they are stymied by fear of immigration authorities, lack of access to lawyers, or sheer distance.
Federal officials say deaths are reviewed internally by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which reports them to its inspector general and decides which ones warrant investigation. Officials say they notify the detainee’s next of kin or consulate, and report the deaths to local medical authorities, who may conduct autopsies. In Mr. Bah’s case, a review before his death found no evidence of foul play, an immigration spokesman said, though after later inquiries from The Times, he said a full review of the death was under way.
But critics, including many in Congress, say this piecemeal process leaves too much to the agency’s discretion, allowing some deaths to be swept under the rug while potential witnesses are transferred or deported. They say it also obscures underlying complaints about medical care, abusive conditions or inadequate suicide prevention.”
The story goes on to detail unspeakable neglect and callousness—by prison guards in their treatment of Bah after suffering his injury, and by local authorities in their treatment of Bah’s family and friends who are still trying to discover just what happened to their loved one. Regardless of how one thinks immigration reform should be pursued, all should agree that what happened to Boubacar Bah—and to many others—has no place in a humane society. Go read the whole thing.