Thread: FLa. Groups Accuse Govt': Poor Health Care-Detained Aliens

Miami: Groups accuse government of poor health care for detained immigrants

By Luis F. Perez | South Florida Sun Sentinel
2:08 PM EDT, March 17, 2009

MIAMI - Medical care provided to immigrants who are held by federal authorities is "dangerously inadequate," according to two advocacy groups that are calling for sweeping changes.

The Florida Immigration Advocacy Center and Human Rights Watch each released reports at a Tuesday morning press conference outlining what they're calling wide-spread failures in the health care provided to immigrants held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The reports detail dozens of cases where it's alleged that immigrants suffered or died due to medical care that was botched, delayed, or denied.

Edwidge Danticat wrote a book about her uncle, the Rev. Joseph Danticat, 81, who died in 2004 after not getting needed heart medication while at Krome Detention Center near Miami.

Detained immigrants in Florida say they're not getting medical care "When one has a loved one die in this situation, what you hope for, what you pray for is that it never happens to another family, another child, another loved one," she said at the press conference. "But it keeps happening again and again."

ICE spokeswoman Nicole Navas said she couldn't respond to the reports until she saw them. Susan Cullen, the director ICE's Office of Policy, said in a letter responding to the Human Rights Watch report that the agency would review some of the recommendations and that it already had started to implement others.

The reports come two weeks after two Brazilian migrants held at the Broward Transitional Center filed a federal lawsuit against ICE, contending that they weren't getting prescribed medication. The same week, a top Homeland Security official said that in cases where detainees died, the medical care they received was not up to ICE standards.

The 78-page report by New York-based Human Rights Watch documents several cases where it says women who showed signs of breast or cervical cancer couldn't get needed Pap smears or mammograms. Others didn't receive pre-natal care or even an adequate supply of sanitary napkins, the report says.

Among FIAC's findings: a shortage of qualified medical providers; no independent oversight of medical care; improper care for mental health problems and for those with disabilities; and problems with medications and medical records.

Marlene Jaggernauth was held by ICE for about a year as she fought her deportation to Trinidad. While in detention at six Florida county jails, she needed to see a gynecologist but she had to wait while jail officials got permission from Washington D.C., she said. By the time she got the OK, she was moved to another detention center and had to start the process over again.

"Many women were afraid to complain because they thought it would affect their immigration case," Jaggernauth said.

The groups' recommendations include establishing a medical care oversight commission; strengthening medical care standards; improved training, and requiring an investigation into any detainee death.

An organization that is pushing for tighter immigration controls criticized the reports. The two groups want to make medical care in detention so expensive that it becomes untenable to deport undocumented immigrants, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

"What advocates want is full medical care for illegal aliens," he said.

Luis F. Perez can be reached at lfperez@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4553.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... 8443.story

"What advocates want is full medical care for illegal aliens," he said.

So pay for it out of your own pockets, jerks. I would prefer my tax dollars go to a worthier cause like teapot museums.