When I was detained I thought that at some point I would be dead.
They think we are animals and we just have to accept whatever they say.
One night when I was in a lot of pain, I asked the guard for help but there was no doctor
or nurse available.
I feel like you fear for your life.
In detention, I went through the most critical and undesirable process of my life.
The pain and suffering I experienced is something that cannot be expressed in words.
I almost lost my life.
Prior to detention I was actually maintaining my health issues, but once I got picked up
by ICE, I went into detention, my health issues got worse.
Before I got in detention, you know, I handled everything myself....
Go to my doctor...
I no feeling anything, problem...
When I get in detention, everything discouraging me.
I having, like, severe pain.
Our clients are under the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and ICE will contract
with local jails to rent out a wing to house ICE detainees.
People are just housed there anywhere from several months to a year to two years while
their immigration proceedings are happening.
Most of the people are lawful permanent residents, predominantly Green Card holders, mostly people
with very low-level interactions with the criminal justice system, often people who
have not served more than or even a day of incarcerated time or time in jail.
Civil detention isn't punishment, or it's not supposed to be punishment.
And yet, they're housed in jail facilities.
Well, in March 2015 I was actually shot.
From that point on I've been experiencing a lot of chronic pain within my left leg.
The bullet's still logged in my leg and in detention, they were supposed to do surgery.
They asked for ICE's permission for me to get surgery done and they ended up denying my claim.
One of the other cases that we worked on involved a review of medical records of a patient in
detention who was having issues with his gallbladder.
He was complaining multiple times of abdominal pain and was just receiving medication for
gastritis or heartburn basically.
So he was in excruciating pain and he was finally told that he had gallstones.
He needed surgery but throughout his time at detention he didn't get the surgery.
They continued to detain him for four months until we finally won his release on legal
grounds from the immigration judge.
Once he got out of detention he started having really intense pain.
He went to the emergency room and they had to conduct an emergency operation because
the problem had gone untreated for so long.
He said, "That's emergent surgery.
You have to immediately ... You have to get surgery.
You're not to go nowhere because your gallbladder is gonna blow inside."
The immigrant detainee population is much larger than I think a lot of people realize.
They are not provided with the healthcare that they need.
People who have family out of here, their lives are disrupted.
Their health is in danger.
They are put at risk.
If you have something that's bothering you, 90% of the time you're prescribed Motrin or
Tylenol and told to go away.
When I expressed my pain that I was experiencing to the medical staff, first they had me on Tylenol.
It wasn't working. Then they put me on Motrin.
Then I started bleeding internally.
The medication given in the ICE no worked.
Anytime when I got a medication, this no work in my body.
I don't know what's going on.
We've seen delays in access to surgery.
We've seen inadequate pain management, delays in mental health services or refusal
to provide those services, including discharge planning.
We have also seen difficulty getting access to interpreter services.
This is, you know, a crisis.
It's absolute crisis.
We were really finding that this issue of needing to advocate for our clients who weren't
getting the right access to healthcare was coming up over and over again, and it really
went beyond the capacity that we had.
At that point the Health Justice Program decided that in order to assist people who are very
vulnerable and very isolated and often are Limited English Proficient, that we would
begin to provide advocacy to people who are in immigration detention to help them get the healthcare that they needed.
We advocate directly with ICE for better healthcare and we advocate with immigration judges for
release from detention so that they can have access to healthcare in the community.
We also have brought impact litigation on behalf of some recently detained individuals
on the failure for discharge planning.
We represent two people who were detained in immigrant detention at Orange County Correctional
Facility and were not provided discharge planning before they were released.
Discharge planning, in layman's terms, is how the patient is going to transition to
other care after they leave an institutionalized setting.
When they go from having stability to an absolute stop of care, they're vulnerable to myriad
dangers including mental decompensation, unemployment, homelessness, increased risk of suicide.
Now, in the case of Mr. Charles, for example, he was being detained up in Orange County, New York.
He was brought down to New York City, basically just put on the street with nothing including
no measure of discharge planning, no medications, no nothing.
The lack of discharge planning meant upon release, within two weeks he was hospitalized
for two months and it's been over a year since he was released and he's still struggling
to get himself back to where he was, living his life fine.
New York Lawyers for the Public Interest would like to hold ICE and these jails accountable
for their actions.
We would also like to see some change, some systemic change, in the way individuals who
are detained are granted access to healthcare.
We have just released a really great report spotlighting our work and the experiences
of the individuals that we've talked to where the goal is to shine a light on this forgotten population.
I think it's fair to say that we're not in a political climate where things are going
to get better and easier more naturally for immigrants.
I think one of the things we're committed to in this case, and I know NYLPI's committed
to in this case, is whatever happens in the political climate is to ensure that underserved
people here, immigrant detainees in particular, that their rights are protected.
If we're working together, we can try to understand what these barriers are to healthcare access
within the facilities and try to address them as much as we can and document them.
Since our founding 40 years ago by the private bar, working closely with the large law firms
in New York has really been one of the strengths of the organization.
We have many, many tools at our disposal.
We also very much have an eye towards the issue areas that are of interest to the lawyers,
to the partners and associates that we work with, as well as in-house counsel, and thinking
about the things that intrigue and issue areas that excite people so that we can work together
to make New York a better place.
Basic fairness and justice requires New York Lawyers for the Public Interest to do what
it does, to make sure that everybody living in our city has the right to enjoy and live
their lives here in a productive way, and not be denied basic human rights like healthcare.
For the past 40 years, we have fought for dignity, equality and justice for all New Yorkers.
We remain resolute in continuing this work on behalf of the people that we serve and
that we partner with.
We will remain as a bulwark for their civil rights, protecting the progress that we've
achieved, but we also will make sure that New York stands apart as a beacon of opportunity.
Now that I'm out of detention I feel a great deal of hope.
I now have insurance and I can get
any type of medical treatment I desire rather than the type of treatment I was getting in detention.
It's like you come back to your life, you come back to the world.
Right now I'm taking care of everything, you know, my health.
And, I feel well.
Thank God I feel well.
For more infomation >> Mr. Golden Sun + weather | Nursery Rhymes | Songs for Childrens, Kids and Babies | 4K - Duration: 2:29. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét