Lawyers: Dying Immigrant Denied Care in Custody

34-year-old man dies of cancer
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 13, 2008 10:00 AM CDT
Lawyers: Dying Immigrant Denied Care in Custody
Illegal immigrants sit in a Customs and Border Patrol detention facility after being detained October 17, 2007 in Campo, California.   (Getty Images)

Hiu Lui “Jason” Ng was a New York computer engineer trying to get his green card when immigration officials arrested him last year, the New York Times reports. Last week he died of undiagnosed cancer after months of neglect in immigration detention centers. Ng complained of chronic back pain, and eventually became too weak to walk or stand, but officials refused to give him a wheelchair or medical examination, his lawyers say.

On July 30, lawyers say, officials dragged Ng from bed, carried him in shackles to a car, and drove him two hours to another jail, where he was urged to accept deportation. “For this desperately sick, vulnerable person, this was torture,” one lawyer said. Ng’s case is one of several calling Homeland Security's detention system into question, and the House is considering reform legislation. (More immigrant stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X