Dying Man in Detention Center Told to "Stop Faking It"

Carlyle Leslie Owen Dale, a severely ill 61-year-old immigrant from Jamaica, has been held for deportation in Louisiana for the past five years. Even though a court of appeals has overruled the deportation order, and found that he is actually not deportable, he is still being held.

The New York Times reports that he “has been hospitalized five times in the past 20 months for problems including asthmatic bronchitis, acute diabetes, pancreatitis, chronic congestive heart failure, flesh-eating bacterial infection, obstructive pulmonary disease and a hernia.” Doctors declared that he had been “near respiratory arrest,” but an infirmary assistant pulled off his nebulizer mark, told him he was faking, and demanded he “do push-ups in his cell.”

Mr. Dale, a legal resident, worked in New York City for 30 years, attending college and eventually opening up a halfway house for recovering addicts. It was at this last position where he was involved in a shooting after he was threatened with a knife. He pled guilty to aggravated assault and served three-and-a-half years in prison. That’s where the orders to deport him began, and continued, despite the court of appeal’s finding that the conclusion that he was deportable was incorrect, the judge equating the crime for which he served time as self-defense.

The National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago is now petitioning the U.N. to intervene, stating that if something isn’t done Mr. Dale will die of medical neglect in the detention center.

The story reminded me of one of the novels that most inspires my interest in immigrant advocacy, Edgwide Danticat’s Brother, I’m Dying, a true account in narrative prose of the life and death of the author’s uncle. After fleeing Haiti for his life and requesting asylum in the United States, Joseph Dantica, who had arrived legally on a visa, was placed in a detention center where his medication was taken from him and his health rapidly declined. Despite severe vomiting and seizures, officials ignored the state of his failing health, accusing him of “faking it.” They ignored him all the way up until he finally collapsed and died. His family was given no information about the circumstances of his death. It took a lawsuit just to obtain the medical records.

These are obviously two vastly different cases in terms of immigrant status and the circumstances surrounding detainment. I don’t mean to equate being placed in detention after pleading for asylum with being detained for deportation after an assault charge (no matter the circumstances). But no matter the reason for detainment, nobody should die because they are refused medical attention or have had their medications taken away. Both cases highlight gross negligence in a detention facility — something that is not uncommon, and that has led to several deaths in the past.

A Washington Post investigation revealed in 2008 that “detainees have less access to lawyers than convicted murderers in maximum-security prisons and some have fewer comforts than al-Qaeda terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay…[the sick] are sometimes denied the proper treatment to which they are entitled by law and regulation. They are locked in a world of slow care, poor care and no care, with panic and coverups among employees watching it happen.”

Both cases are also similar in that they highlight the inefficiency of detainment. Joseph Dantica was held in detention despite having a visa and a family ready to receive him. Carlyle Leslie Owen Dale is still being held after five years, despite a judge ruling that he is not eligible for deportation.

Why aren’t we seeing greater oversight after so many years of similar stories of medical neglect? Why are people still being held in detention facilities (an expensive undertaking) when they aren’t even supposed to be there?

Why are we still reading about cases like this?

Photo Credit: adrianclarkmbbs