Immigration Detention

Motley Rice attorneys are currently representing the family of a Chinese detainee who died in August 2008 while in custody of immigration officials at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island.

Our attorneys are working with the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the wife and two young children of 34-year-old immigrant Hiu Lui (“Jason”) Ng. A lawsuit filed by the family in February 2009 in U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island charges the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation and the Franklin County Jail, as well as several employees and officers at Wyatt Detention Facility, with violating Ng’s constitutional rights.

After a lengthy timeline outlined in the lawsuit, including months of complaints by Ng about his health and transfers to several facilities, Ng was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and a broken spine just one week before he died on August 6, 2008. The lawsuit alleges excessive force and brutality, constitutionally inadequate medical care, denial of counsel and violations of anti-discrimination laws on the basis of disability.

For more information on the Ng case or immigrant detainee rights and abuse litigation, contact attorney Bob McConnell by email or call +1 800.768.4026.

Addressing Immigration Detention and Medical Care

The ACLU reports that ICE takes custody of nearly 300,000 men, women and children each year. Most of these immigrant detainees have no criminal history, yet they are placed in detention facilities throughout the country and become vulnerable to a system warped by scandal, abuse and neglect. 

Reports increasingly show the importance of fair treatment for immigrant detainees as related to their legal rights and health care. Immigrant detainees face challenges in exercising what rights they do have under the U.S. constitution. Without the right to appointed counsel, they can be exposed to an environment in which binding uniform detention standards for humane treatment do not exist. Housed in detention centers, many in remote locations, they may be placed at risk for psychological health problems and arbitrary punishment.