Some Immigrants Deaths in United States` Custody Remains Shrouded in Mystery
By: Tommy Elder, Jr.
Mystery shrouds the death of Guinea Immigrant Boubacar Bah in the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey. Nina Bernstein of the New York Times reports that Mr. Bah, a tailor with a Tourist Visa that expired while he remained in the United States died in the hands of officials of the United States` Custom.
Back on February 5, 2007- Mr. Bah fell and hit his head during his stay in a jail facility. This incident occured during a period of solitary confinement for Mr. Boubacar Bah.
In the wee hours of the night- an ambulance rushed him to a hospital in a state of incoherence. Following emergency surgery due to a skull fracture and multiple brain hemorrhages- Mr. Bah lapsed into a coma. Within four months- Boubacar Bah died without regaining conscientiousness.
Sadly, Mr. Bah`s name stands with that of sixty-six others who died while in the custody of Immigration and Custom Enforcement from January 2004 to November 2007. Approximately, one million people passed through immigration during this time span.
According to Bernstein- the names on ICE`s list of deaths during detention contains- ``few details, and they are often unreliable but it serves as a rough road map to previously unreported cases like Mr. Bah`s. And it reflects a reality that haunts grieving families like his: the difficulty of getting information about the fate of people taken into immigration custody, even when they die.``
Currently, a glaring problem in the Immigration Bureauracy`s abyss centers around the void of information for the families of those persons held in detention. Deaths in detention go through an internal review process. ICE forwards the reports to the inspector general who decides if the known facts warrants an investigation. The deaths of detainees go as a report to the next of kin or the consulate of the deceased person and the nearest medical official.
Following Mr. Bah`s death- his cousins asked for an autopsy. The Medical Report came out on December 6, 2007.
Although he could if desired- the prosecutor failed to initiate a separate investigation.
More abstracts about the New York Times