Detainee Dies In US Custody
Hiu Lui Ng was a computer engineer who worked in New York’s Empire State Building. He lived in America since 1992, and had a wife and two American-born sons. After going to immigration headquarters in New york last summer to be interviewed for a green card, he was swept up into immigration detention and moved about between jails and detention centers. He died on Wednesday, August 6, two days after his 34th birthday, after four months of excruciating back pain, during which he could not walk or stand. His cancer-riddled body had gone undiagnosed and untreated during this time. The New York Times has the rest of the story:
Mr. Ng’s death follows a succession of cases that have drawn Congressional scrutiny to complaints of inadequate medical care, human rights violations and a lack of oversight in immigration detention, a rapidly growing network of publicly and privately run jails where the government held more than 300,000 people in the last year while deciding whether to deport them.
In federal court affidavits, Mr. Ng’s lawyers contend that when he complained of severe pain that did not respond to analgesics, and grew too weak to walk or even stand to call his family from a detention pay phone, officials accused him of faking his condition. They denied him a wheelchair and refused pleas for an independent medical evaluation.
Instead, the affidavits say, guards at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., dragged him from his bed on July 30, carried him in shackles to a car, bruising his arms and legs, and drove him two hours to a federal lockup in Hartford, where an immigration officer pressured him to withdraw all pending appeals of his case and accept deportation.
Of course, you have to wonder how it could have gotten to this point.
In 2001, a notice ordering him to appear in immigration court was mistakenly sent to a nonexistent address, records show. When Mr. Ng did not show up at the hearing, the judge ordered him deported. By then, however, he was getting married, and on a separate track, his wife petitioned Citizenship and Immigration Services for a green card for him - a process that took more than five years. Heeding bad legal advice, the couple showed up for his green card interview on July 19, 2007, only to find enforcement agents waiting to arrest Mr. Ng on the old deportation order.
So, Mr. Ng died, not just of cancer, but because of disdain and disgust for immigrants, because of bureaucratic incompetence, because a society that claims a high moral ground and claims to care for the sick, the needy the unfortunate, really doesn’t. After being warned by authorities that if the came to visit him, he’d be transferred, a warden finally approved a family visit, when he had just hours left to live. His sister, Wendy Zhao, spoke he last words to him:
“Brother, don’t worry, don’t be afraid,” Ms. Zhao said, repeating her last words to him. “They are not going to send you back to the facility again. Brother, you are free now.”
Yes, America finally gave Mr. Ng the freedom for which he longed. Death will set you free.
My stomach was already upset, now it feels worse. This is murder by reckless disregard.
I hope those guards and the higher ups feel really good about themselves.
Alan, what’s the missing word here?
“..After being warned by authorities that if the __ came to visit him, he’d be transferred..”
August 14th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Oh, “they”. I think I see now.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me…”
Clearly, we have become a people dominated by small-minded, petty thugs.
We should really demolish the Statue of Liberty. It’s an anachronism. We could melt it down and cast it into pipes to carry away our endless rivers of excreta concerning freedom, democracy, and justice for all.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Speed up the process to send them back from whence they came [ILLEGALLY].GOD bless them on the way.
For they are products of Mexico’s failed liberal government.
PAY FOR OUR OWN POOR REJECTS IN THE GETTOS OF AMERIKA! FIRST!!!!!!!
For they are the products of our own failed liberal policy’s!
August 14th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Jerry, do you have any recognition of Asian names? Ng was probably Vietnamese, if anything, not Mexican.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
“Born in China, he entered the United States legally on a tourist visa. Mr. Ng stayed on after it expired and applied for political asylum. He was granted a work permit while his application was pending, and though asylum was eventually denied, immigration authorities did not seek his deportation for many years.
Meanwhile, his sister said, Mr. Ng (pronounced Eng), who was known as Jason, graduated from high school in Long Island City, Queens, worked his way through community technical college, passed Microsoft training courses and won a contract to provide computer services to a company with offices in the Empire State Building.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/nyregion/13detain.html
August 14th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
What was that about coming here illegally, Jerry?
August 14th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I assumed NG because the letters are often together at the start of Vietnamese, et al, surnames. I was mistaken in that assumption. Nevertheless, it was an innocent error.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Sorry, assumed it was Vietnamese because of the order and placement of the letters.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/sept11_lawsuits
August 14th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
This is disgusting! And I don’t want to hear the right wingers justifying this by saying, “it was an accident”. It seems the detainees have been products of “accidents” by the Americans for quite some time now.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
The History Channel has new material: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26186498/?GT1=43001
August 14th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I think the more likely excuse, TDro, is that they’ll claim this is a rare occurrence (which it might be statistically, but that’s no justification), and that “mistakes happen” when trying to “keep America safe”.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Wow….just wow. I was just getting in a good mood today, and then I read this. This just sickens me.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
OOP, so much for speed reading.
He should have been legal.
We are at war with illegal musloms if you remember!
Thank GOD somebody is detaining [them] that are not legal.
THIS AIN’T A FREE RIDE HERE! SUPPORT THEM WITH YOUR MONEY LIBERAL PUKE!
Oh; no, [they] won’t do that ! Liberals are not that chairitable,[are they]?
August 14th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
You liberals will blame Cheney and Halliburton, so Ill be the first to say it.
August 14th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Maybe all this will change in 2042 when BillO’s ‘white male Christian power structure’ is longer the majority..
I don’t not hat you’re ‘rollin’ there jerry but it smells like horse shit to me..
.
August 14th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
You liberals will blame Cheney and Halliburton, so Ill be the first to say it.
by Bradley August 14, 2008 at 2:25 pm
If they were running the detention certers, they SHOULD be blamed!
You conservatives will blame George Soros and Nancy Pelosi, so Ill be the first to say it.
August 14th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Why was he detained?
Why wasn’t he receiving proper medical care? Didn’t Michael Moore highlight the care that detainees were receiving in his movie SICK NATION (I think that’s what it’s called).
This is a disgusting and sad case. RC, excellent quote to highlight the imperialistic hypocratic attitude that has infected our nation.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I think it may come down to ideals, Cheryl, about which very few seem to give a damn. What principles do we really practice as a society? Greed. Getting our own way. Winning by any means necessary. We’re the 21st century barbarians.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
OOP, so much for speed reading.
He should have been legal.
“We are at war with illegal musloms if you remember!
Thank GOD somebody is detaining [them] that are not legal.
THIS AIN’T A FREE RIDE HERE! SUPPORT THEM WITH YOUR MONEY LIBERAL PUKE!
Oh; no, [they] won’t do that ! Liberals are not that chairitable,[are they]?
by jerrysrollin.blogspot.com August 14, 2008 at 1:46 pm”
You still sped read. He was legal. And what evidence do you have that Ng was even Muslim?
Why the hell do you talk, Jerry? Do you have the Tourettes?
August 14th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Born free taxed till death…thats the american way Alan, get it right will you?
August 14th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
born free taxed til death
August 14th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
If this slant eyed piece of crap had obeyed “OUR” immigration laws to begin with he wouldn’t have been in danger of arrest or deportation. As for “medical care” until the rest of “us” (citizens) get universal healthcare he was entitled to the same coverage as the rest of us which is if can’t afford treatment you don’t get any. So long to bad rubbish.
August 14th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
So long to bad rubbish.
So when are you going to leave? And you most certainly are “bad rubbish”.
August 14th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Brother, if you are an illegal alien or have infiltrated The United States of America and overstayed on a tourist visa, BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID!!!!
August 14th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
“BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID!!!!”
Especially now, since we live in a TORTURE state. Maybe the government will break into suntan’s house thinking he’s a terrorist, throw him in Gitmo and waterboard him. Ahhh, wouldn’t that be nice.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Maybe the government will break into suntan’s house thinking he’s a terrorist, throw him in Gitmo and waterboard him. Ahhh, wouldn’t that be nice.
Only to have the aclu get involved and win him a multimillion $ lawsuit of our tax $.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:21 am
I think Jerry might have been the first caller.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:43 am
“Only to have the aclu get involved and win him a multimillion $ lawsuit of our tax…”
And if the Bush regime actually heeded the “rule of law”, rather than acting like a law unto themselves, they wouldn’t be losing in court and they’d have nothing to fear from ACLU or anyone else.
But the way Bush does things, the Russians now say, “If the Americans can invade Iraq then we can invade Georgia.”
We replaced a secular state with an islamic republic, and an enemy of Iran is now their newest best friend, and we’re so over-extended the Russians can just thumb their nose and do whatever they want. Could this adminstration have possibly screwed up the world any worse if they had deliberately tried to screw it up?
I don’t think so.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Clark Rockerfeller or whatever your name is,Be afraid,be very afraid.skin cancer,I mean suntan has spoken.Damn,candy ass coward,do the world a favor sit down and shut up,before you hurt yourself.No on second thought,Jump go ahead Jump.
August 15th, 2008 at 8:19 am
All “illegal aliens” should be afraid and for one reason. They have entered “our” country without permission and since doing so are criminals of the worst kind. Why should we the legal citizens of this great country abide by any law when so many around us don’t obey any. In NYC they are now paying “parents” including “illegal aliens” to make sure their rugrats go to school, get vaccinations, see a doctor and dentist. This is done with “our” tax dollars. It is the law that these aforementioned things must be done, if not the parents are neglecting their progeny and should be charged with abuse and truancy. In my former home city just across the Hudson from NYC if a parent doesn’t insure that their offspring go to school the municipal judge throws the little rat in the juvenile detention center and the parents in jail on the weekends. As for “illegal aliens” why would they ever obey any law when they’re breaking it by being here. I want to take a crap in the middle of my street to save on water, the govt. should pay me not to. I want to speed at over 100 mph on the highway, the govt. should pay not to.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
“Only to have the aclu get involved and win him a multimillion $ lawsuit of our tax $.”
Hey, the ACLU hasn’t gone after your “decider guy” yet. And a multimillion $ lawsuit is a drop in the bucket compared to the multiTRILLION $’s being crapped away on this useless, unnecessary war.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
“All “illegal aliens” should be afraid and for one reason. They have entered “our” country without permission and since doing so are criminals of the worst kind.”
by suntan August 15, 2008 at 1:54 pm
..
I can only presume from this post that you are a Native America.. What tribe are you from? Just curious.
.
.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
It is, of course, also not important to him that Ng came here legally.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:20 pm