Development & Aid, Headlines, Health, Human Rights, Migration & Refugees, North America

RIGHTS-US: AIDS Care Spotty in Migrant Detention, HRW Says

Rajiv Fernando

NEW YORK, Dec 7 2007 (IPS) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s wing of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has used its authority to detain nearly 30,000 immigrants in hundreds of prisons, jails and immigration detention centres throughout the United States.

In a 71-page report released Friday, “Chronic Indifference: HIV/AIDS Services for Immigrants Detained by the United States,” the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) documents the experiences of HIV-positive detainees whose treatment was denied, delayed, or interrupted, resulting in serious risk and often damage to their health.

According to HRW, the Department of Homeland Security’s detention guidelines for HIV/AIDS care fail to meet both national and international standards for appropriate care, and the agency does little to enforce their own minimal standards.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, HRW asked the government to release the number of immigration detainees with HIV/AIDS – only to discover that this information is “not tracked”. Failure to collect this vital statistic, as well as information about the treatment and services provided to detainees with HIV/AIDS, prevents the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from improving its programmes to meet the needs of this vulnerable population, the group says.

This can be seen in the case of immigrant detainee Victoria Arellano, a 23-year-old trans-gendered woman from Mexico with HIV/AIDS who died in ICE custody on Jul. 20.

She had been detained at the San Pedro Service Processing Centre in California (SPSPC) for eight weeks. According to her cellmates, her health began to deteriorate when medical staff refused to continue her regular prescriptions.

Victoria’s condition steadily worsened during the month of July, and she began to vomit blood, and blood appeared in her urine. The detainees in Pod 3 at San Pedro became increasingly concerned for her welfare as she became too weak to sit up in her bunk. Victoria was seen in the medical clinic, but she was told only to take Tylenol and drink large amounts of water.

On the night of Jul. 12, as her conditioned worsened, she was taken to a hospital but returned to the detention centre the next day. She was very weak and told her cellmates that the medical and security staff had put her in a holding cell and taunted her.

The following morning she was taken to the hospital again, where she died a week later of meningitis, a condition often associated with advanced AIDS.

IPS was unable to speak to Victoria’s mother, Olga Arellano, but managed to reach her lawyer, Judy London. According to London, Olga was at Victoria’s side when she died. Despite the fact that she was hooked up to a breathing machine, Victoria was shackled to her bed and a guard posted at the door.

London told IPS: “Olga wants this story told, as she believes that no human being should ever suffer what Victoria suffered. She loved and misses Victoria, but feels peace in that she accepted Victoria as a woman, and supported her efforts to live as a trans-gendered individual, free of hate and discrimination.”

The HRW report highlighted several other cases in which detainees were not given adequate care or treatment.

Charles B. had emigrated from Jamaica to New York City in 1987 as a lawful permanent resident. Immigration authorities detained Charles for four years and eight months, from September 2000 until May 2005. At the time he entered ICE custody, Charles was HIV-positive but otherwise healthy. During detention, his health deteriorated significantly, declining to a point where his condition verged on full-blown AIDS.

Gloria M. was a 43-year-old woman from South Africa with two children and a fiancé. In 1995, Gloria served jail time on a criminal charge, but after release obtained her green card and worked as an AIDS counselor at a non-profit agency in Indiana. In 2003, she was detained at the airport while returning from a trip to South Africa.

She was released, but immigration officials kept her green card and told her she would be notified where to pick it up at a later date. In January 2004, immigration advised her that she could pick up her green card at an office in Chicago. Upon her arrival at the office, she was told that they planned to deport her because of her 1995 criminal conviction. She was handcuffed, placed in a van and taken to McHenry County Jail in Woodstock, Illinois where no intake medical exam was conducted and Gloria received no HIV/AIDS education, counseling or information.

They informed her at the facility that they would not put her on AIDS medication because she was a resident of Indiana, not Illinois, so the state would not pay. She had to beg them to get her fiancée to bring her medication from Indiana.

The report notes that DHS fails to collect basic information concerning HIV/AIDS cases in the hundreds of detention facilities contracting with ICE to incarcerate immigrants.

“Although the U.S. government ‘outsources’ much of its immigration detention to local jails and facilities across the country, it cannot evade its responsibility to protect the well-being, health and lives of HIV-positive immigrants,” said Megan McLemore of HRW’s HIV/AIDS programme.

HRW made several recommendations to the Division of Immigrant Health Services, DHS, ICE, the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the U.S. Congress.

They outline the basic rights of immigrant detainees, how to ensure and protect their care, gather proper information and keep medical records current, improve the current system of tracking complaints from detainees, and ensure oversight.

The report shows how ICE is unwilling to provide information to the public, which hinders oversight of its compliance and monitoring activities.

For example, ICE permits the American Bar Association (ABA) to conduct inquiries into complaints received from immigration detainees. However, the agency prohibits the ABA from publicly releasing of the results of these inquiries.

The U.N. Special Rapporteur for the Human Rights of Migrants, Jorge Bustamante, attempted to visit some detention centres during his May 2007 mission to the United States, but was turned away from two of the three facilities.

According to the HRW report, the medical care provided by ICE does not meet the “equivalence” standard set by national correctional health experts, nor does it meet the recommended standards under international law for compliance with human rights and best medical practice.

“The Department of Homeland Security needs to upgrade their policies and more closely monitor and ensure effective treatment for immigrants living with HIV or AIDS,” said McLemore. “Otherwise these individuals will continue to suffer, and even die, in the care of the U.S. government.”

Asked about the report, ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel told Reuters, “ICE provides excellent care to the detainees in our custody, it’s an absolute priority with us.”

She added that the agency spends nearly 100 million dollars a year on detainee health care.