23949: Hermantin (Pub)Investigate pastor's death by Cheryl Little (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Miami-Herald



Posted on Wed, Dec. 15, 2004




KROME


Investigate pastor's death

BY CHERYL LITTLE

www.fiacfla.org


The recent death in Department of Homeland Security custody of an
81-year-old pastor is a bitter reminder of the grossly inadequate medical
care that the U.S. government too often provides asylum seekers and others
subject to immigration detention. DHS officials chained the Rev. Joseph
Dantica to his hospital bed after transferring him from the Krome detention
center and denied his family, including acclaimed Haitian-American author
Edwidge Danticat, access to him in his last hours.

The Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center has long been concerned about the
grossly negligent medical care provided to immigration detainees. A 1999
FIAC report, Cries for Help: Medical Care at Krome Service Processing Center
and in Florida's County Jails, detailed the extent to which lack of proper
medical care was putting lives at risk. Subsequent FIAC reports have
detailed the inadequate medical care afforded women detainees in Florida's
jails.

In September 1998, a Krome Public Health Service worker described to The
Herald clinic deficiencies so extensive that ''the whole system needs to be
closed down and the patients evacuated.'' Although many improvements have
since been made, and Krome's medical center now has state-of-the-art
equipment, other problems described to The Herald by PHS workers clearly
have not been addressed. Among these are accusations that ''the majority of
the staff'' at Krome is insensitive: ''They view the people in there as
criminals, and they are not treated with simple human dignity,'' another
Krome worker told The Herald. ``Staff gets the attitude that no one is
really sick. They treat people like everyone is faking it.''

Indeed, after taking Dantica's medication from him upon his arrival at
Krome, officers accused him of faking his illness. DHS, too, detained him at
Miami's airport for more than 12 hours and wouldn't permit him to leave the
airport with his family even though he had a valid visa to enter the United
States. Such actions could well have contributed to his death.

Unfortunately, Dantica's death is not an isolated incident. In November
2001, 28-year-old Jean Jude Andre, a Haitian national, died after collapsing
in a Krome bathroom. According to his family and other Krome detainees,
Andre's death might have been prevented had he received proper medical care
while in immigration custody. In 1999, 46-year-old Ashley Anderson died
after being transferred from Krome to Larkin Community Hospital in South
Miami. Before his death, Anderson had repeatedly complained to The Herald
about neglect and inadequate medical treatment at Krome.

Woeful healthcare

Beyond these and other reported questionable deaths in immigration custody,
one has to wonder how many more detainees have lost their lives behind
closed doors, removed from the public eye.

Immigration detainees represent the fastest growing segment of our nation's
exploding jail population. Medical care for these detainees has not kept
pace. It is DHS's responsibility to ensure the adequacy of medical care
given to its detainees, a responsibility that the agency has abdicated for
too long.

Ironically, the week of Dantica's death, officials from the U.S. Justice
Department's Civil Rights Division were in South Florida investigating cases
of alleged medical neglect brought to their attention by FIAC and the
Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children.

Many human-rights groups have called for a full investigation. Not only
should this death be investigated, but the entire medical service for
detainees should be reviewed. Only such independent scrutiny will ensure
that DHS carries out its moral and legal responsibility to provide for the
health and safety of detainees entrusted to its care. Let's hope that
Dantica's death is not in vain and that countless other innocent lives are
not needlessly lost.

Cheryl Little is executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy
Center.