DREAMer Hiu Nui Ng Dies in Prison from Untreated Cancer

Hiu Nui Ng had been in the U.S. for decades. He attended and graduated from an American university.... His immigration status was derailed years ago when an immigration letter was sent to the wrong address. He married a U.S. citizen. He was arrested when he applied for a Green Card.

Even though DHS and ICE say that they are now doing a great job of caring for detainees, apparently this information is incorrect. Hearing how detention officers treated Mr. Hiu Nui Ng, it seems like we are being told about Nazi officers in a concentration camp. Their treatment of Mr. Ng was abominable.

He died of untreated cancer.

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Listen to Democracy Now program on the Death of Hiu Nui Ng

Cancer-Stricken 34-Year-Old Chinese Computer Engineer Dies After Being Denied Care in Private US Immigration Prison

Democracy Now
August 19, 2008

Earlier this month, a thirty-four-year-old Chinese computer engineer, Hiu Lui Ng, who overstayed his visa, died in a Rhode Island immigration detention center. He had cancer in his liver, lung and bones, and a fractured spine. Despite repeated complaints of severe pain, Mr. Ng was refused independent medical evaluation by immigration officials. Before Mr. Ng died on August 6th, he told his sister that the nurses at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center in Rhode Island had told him to “stop faking” his illness. We speak to immigration attorney Joshua Bardavid, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Renee Feltz, co-creator of the site

We turn now to the sprawling detention system within this country that some have likened to a gulag and a series of domestic Guantanamo Bays: The immigration prisons that over 300,000 people pass through each year.

Earlier this month a 34-year old Chinese computer engineer, Hiu Lui Ng, who overstayed his visa died in a Rhode Island immigration detention center. He had cancer in his liver, lung, and bones, and a fractured spine.

Despite repeated complaints of severe pain Mr. Ng was refused independent medical evaluation by immigration officials, the New York Times reported. Instead he was taken in shackles to another prison two hours away where an immigration officer tried to convince him to withdraw his appeals and accept deportation.

Before Mr. Ng died on August 6th he told his sister that the nurses at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center in Rhode Island had told him to “stop faking” his illness.

Mr. Ng’s story is the latest in a series of similar cases of neglect and abuse at the hands of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency or ICE.

Investigations by the Washington Post and New York Times earlier this year revealed that as many as 83 detainees have died in or soon after ICE custody in the five years since the agency was created in March of 2003.

When contacted for response ICE said they could not comment on Mr. Ng’s death because it is under investigation.

Congress is responding to these deaths with legislation aimed to improve conditions for non-citizens in ICE custody. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren from California and Senator Robert Menendez from New Jersey sponsored the House and Senate versions of the Detainee Basic Medical Care Act of 2008.

Joshua Bardavid, immigration attorney in New York. He is representing Hiu Lui Ng’s family.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Democratic Congress member from California. She serves as Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law.

Renee Feltz, investigative journalist based in New York City and creator with Stokely Baksh of the award-winning multimedia investigative project BusinessOfDetention.com. Part of this project featured on MotherJones.com, and another part will be featured in an upcoming issue of NACLA.

for link to NY Times editorial on Ng's death click here