Hiu Lui "Jason" Ng (吳曉雷; b. ca. 1975, d. August 5/6, 2008) was a New Yorker seized at his final

green card A green card, known officially as a permanent resident card, is an identity document which shows that a person has permanent residency in the United States. ("The term 'lawfully admitted for permanent residence' means the status of having been ...

interview, who died at age 34 while in custody of

United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the c ...

(ICE) after symptoms of liver cancer were ignored. Being held at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

, Ng was awaiting deportation for having overstayed an earlier visa. The events leading up to his death were condemned by the editorial page of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and other persons and organizations. An exposé by ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' highlighted Ng's case and identified tens of questionable deaths of ICE detainees between 2003 and 2008. These circumstances prompted the attempted introduction of federal legislation to ensure timely and effective medical care for immigration detainees.

History

Ng came to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

from

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

in 1992 at age 17. He went to college, became a

computer engineer Computer engineering (CoE or CpE) is a branch of electrical engineering and computer science that integrates several fields of computer science and electronic engineering required to develop computer hardware and computer software, software. C ...

, married a United States citizen, and fathered two American born sons. He entered the United States legally but had long overstayed his visa. The government rejected his pleas for

political asylum The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another ent ...

. He missed a court date in 2001 when the order was sent to a non-existent address, and the judge ordered him deported when he did not show up at the hearing. His wife, a

naturalized citizen Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

, had petitioned to get him

legal residency Domicile is relevant to an individual's "personal law," which includes the law that governs a person's status and their property. It is independent of a person's nationality. Although a domicile may change from time to time, a person has only one ...

, but he was seized at his final

interview on July 19, 2007 on the old

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...

order. While in

immigration detention Immigration detention is the policy of holding individuals suspected of visa violations, illegal entry or unauthorized arrival, as well as those subject to deportation and removal until a decision is made by immigration authorities to grant a v ...

, Ng grew frail and complained for months of excruciating

back pain Back pain is pain felt in the back. It may be classified as neck pain (cervical), middle back pain (thoracic), lower back pain (lumbar) or coccydynia (tailbone or sacral pain) based on the segment affected. The lumbar area is the most common ...

. Officials at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in

denied him an independent medical evaluation. A legal claim filed on Ng's behalf alleged that guards would drag him by his arms and legs because they claimed "he was only pretending to be sick" — the truth of which was later established in an inquiry. Ng's lawyers filed a petition of

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

to see that he received suitable medical treatment which was declined by a judge, but nevertheless directed that Ng receive the medical treatment. When he finally saw a doctor, the diagnosis was

terminal cancer Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer, dementia or advanced ...

and a broken spine. He died five days later. The State Medical Examiners office later declared that he died due to complications of metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer).

Aftermath

Ng's lawyers demanded a criminal investigation in a letter to federal and state prosecutors in Rhode Island,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

and

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

, and the

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

. The editors of ''

'' condemned the death, writing that Mr. Ng "paid the ultimate price for overstaying a

visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

, and getting lost in a sprawling system that some have likened to the

gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

." Prompted by the death, Congressman

José Enrique Serrano José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

wrote to the

ICE Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaqu ...

, in a letter dated August 13, 2008: "there is a certain standard we should live up to for everyone we have detained and it is outrageous that anyone would be treated in such a fashion while in your custody." Members of Rhode Island's congressional delegation requested a Homeland Security investigation into the death. In response to a ''Washington Post'' article that highlighted the case of Ng and identified 30 questionable deaths among 83 detainee deaths in ICE agency custody through March 2008 (beginning in March 2003 when the agency was created), Representative

Zoe Lofgren Susan Ellen "Zoe" Lofgren ( ; born December 21, 1947) is an American lawyer and politician serving as a U.S. representative from California. A member of the Democratic Party, Lofgren is in her 13th term in Congress, having been first elected in ...

( D- CA) introduced the Detainee Basic Medical Bill (HR. 5950) in the House and Senator

Robert Menendez Robert Menendez (; born January 1, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from New Jersey, a seat he has held since 2006. Gale Biography In Context. A member of the Democratic Party, he was firs ...

( D- NJ) introduced the bill (S. 3005) in the Senate. Both bills requires "the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish procedures for the timely and effective delivery of medical and mental health care to all immigration detainees in custody"; the bills did not survive past committee.

History

Aftermath

References

Further reading