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| Detainee\'s death brings fallout - Miami Herald | July 8, 2008 |
| Trenton Daniel | |
| Activists are questioning medical conditions in federal detention facilities after a West Palm Beach resident from Haiti died while in the custody of immigration officers. \'\'Lack of access to adequate medical care is among one of the chief complaints we hear from detainees in South Florida and elsewhere,\'\' said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami. Little said an early investigation shows Valery Joseph, 23, died on June 20 while he was being held in the Glades County Detention Center. Officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement picked up the West Palm Beach resident from the county jail on Dec. 28, 2007. An immigration judge indicated Joseph might have been eligible for release from deportation, Little said. A hearing was scheduled for July 3. Since 2000, Joseph had been convicted of several felonies, including robbery and grand theft. In a written statement, ICE spokeswoman Nicole Navas noted: ``This [is] another attempt by advocacy groups such as FIAC to tout emotion over fact from their bully pulpit. While a single death of an ICE detainee is a serious matter, it is important to review the facts. There is no lack of medical care for those held in detention. In fact, quite the opposite.\'\' The immigration agency spends nearly $100 million annually on detainee healthcare nationwide, which includes preventive dental, chronic and mental health, Navas said. As is standard, the case will go before the agency\'s Office of Responsibility to see if a probe is warranted. The agency would not comment further. According to Little, this is what happened: Documents obtained by FIAC show immigration officers were delivering medication to Joseph on June 20 when he was found unresponsive. Joseph was pronounced dead at 10:54 a.m. An autopsy was performed on June 22. Preliminary results show Joseph died from a seizure, Little said. A few days later Joseph\'s mother learned about her son\'s death, Little said. The mother was told by the funeral home that the body was not suitable for viewing, and she has yet to see the body, Little said. Details about the death will become clearer once the agency hands over Joseph\'s medical records, Little said. \'\'We\'re hoping we\'re not getting the run around and these records are provided to the family,\'\' she said. The death in detention recalls the 2004 case of Joseph Dantica, a Baptist minister who was the uncle of Haitian-born writer Edwidge Danticat. Dantica, fleeing gang violence that had engulfed his Port-au-Prince church, died as an 81-year-old asylum seeker at the Krome detention center in West Miami-Dade. The event was chronicled in a prize-winning memoir Danticat wrote, Brother, I\'m Dying. The issue of medical care among immigrant detainees has become the subject of Congressional hearings. U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek has asked DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner for an investigation into the Joseph case, which has galvanized Haitian activists. \'\'We are hoping that a conclusion in the investigation will shed light on the treatment of detainees,\'\' Jean-Robert Lafortune, chairman of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition, said Monday. Activists are holding a news conference Tuesday, Joseph\'s birth date, in Little Haiti. According to ICE, 71 people have died nationwide in detention in the past five years among nearly 1.5 million in detention during that time. ICE notes that the detainee population has increased by more than 30 percent since 2004, but the mortality rate has declined. Joseph\'s mother described her son as courteous and affectionate. \'\'He was a very respectful boy he always told me he loves me,\'\' recalled Jacqueline Fleury, 42. Joseph, who hailed from the Port-au-Prince suburb of Carrefour, moved to the United States when he was 8 years old, Fleury said. | |