Abuse of Immigrants in American Jails & Cover Up

Recently disclosed documents reveal abuse of immigrants held in federal custody and an attempted cover up by negligent and corrupt officials. Not only were immigrants denied their rights and mistreated, many have even died in a country that often likes to pride itself on being a "nation of immigrants" and welcoming of all people:

. . . behind the scenes, it is now clear, the deaths had already generated thousands of pages of government documents, including scathing investigative reports that were kept under wraps, and a trail of confidential memos and BlackBerry messages that show officials working to stymie outside inquiry.

The documents, obtained over recent months by The Times and the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act, concern most of the 107 deaths in detention counted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since October 2003, after the agency was created within the Department of Homeland Security.

On average, 17 people die in federal immigration jail every year in America! These deaths each have their own story, their own ambitions and their own loved ones who depended on them, mourned them and continue to suffer without them:

In another case that year, investigators from the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility concluded that unbearable, untreated pain had been a significant factor in the suicide of a 22-year-old detainee at the Bergen County Jail in New Jersey, and that the medical unit was so poorly run that other detainees were at risk.

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Nery Romero

The investigation found that jail medical personnel had falsified a medication log to show that the detainee, a Salvadoran named Nery Romero, had been given Motrin. The fake entry was easy to detect: When the drug was supposedly administered, Mr. Romero was already dead.

Yet those findings were never disclosed to the public or to Mr. Romero’s relatives on Long Island, who had accused the jail of abruptly depriving him of his prescription painkiller for a broken leg. And an agency supervisor wrote that because other jails were “finicky” about accepting detainees with known medical problems like Mr. Romero’s, such people would continue to be placed at the Bergen jail as “a last resort.”

In a recent interview, Benjamin Feldman, a spokesman for the jail, which housed 1,503 immigration detainees last year, would not say whether any changes had been made since the death.

Make no mistake, this is a crime of murder and to falsify any medical records, especially in a case of suicide/death, is an incredible offense. Those people should be charged with complicity in death for initial negligence, and for a cover up of death, and the falsification of medical records.

It is incredible that such cruelty could be inflicted for years and nothing done, more dead bodies piling up, families protesting to no avail, and corrupt officials seeking to hid their immorality and protect themselves from complicity in murder.

Americans like to lecture other people and pretend to be promoting freedom aboard, why not start with minimal decency at home?

This story is too grave an injustice, too saddening, a national disgrace and a scare on America's legacy. How dare we?!!!