23878: (pub) Chamberlain) Haiti-Death In Custody (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec 10 (AP) -- U.S. officials have agreed to investigate
the death of an 81-year-old Haitian pastor who died last month in the
custody of immigration authorities, a U.S. congressman said Thursday.
   The Rev. Joseph Dantica fled to the United States in October, seeking
asylum after gangs ransacked his Port-au-Prince church and threatened to
kill him. He died five days later while in custody.
   Relatives accused immigration authorities of mistreating the pastor,
saying they took away his medication. The U.S. Department of Homeland
Security said at the time that his death was unrelated to his detention.
   But U.S. Rep. Kendrick B. Meek, a Florida Democrat, said Thursday that
the department's inspector general, Clark Kent Ervin, had agreed to Meek's
Nov. 17 request for an investigation.
   "Rev. Dantica's case is particularly troubling due to the treatment he
received, his age and his health," Meek said in a statement. "Mr. Ervin has
also given me assurances that his office is examining whether systematic
abuse of detainees in DHS facilities is occurring."
   The medical examiner listed inflammation of the pancreas as the cause of
the pastor's Nov. 3 death.
   But his family points to other factors, saying his death underlines
gross problems in the way Haitians are treated upon arrival in the United
States.
   His family says U.S. authorities took away Dantica's prescription pills
and herbal medicine he was taking for a swollen prostate and high blood
pressure. A U.S. official said Dantica had no "legitimate" medication on
him.