Johanna Cochran one of our stellar attorneys recently took a pro bono case for a Mexican man
detained at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, who, despite a
diagnosis and treatment for brain cancer, was refused release from detention to
seek urgent medical treatment. Our client was a Legal Permanent Resident of the
U.S., had been living in this country for over 25 years, and was the father of
three U.S. citizen children. He was detained because of a recent battery charge
for which he was convicted. This man failed to seek the advice of an attorney
before pleading guilty to the charge and it was not until officers from
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) went looking for him, that he sought
an attorney to try to reopen his criminal conviction (which he had pled to without attorney advice). By reopening the case, this long term permanent resident would not be deported.
Our firm quickly learned that our client had some serious
medical conditions that needed urgent medical attention—attention he was not
getting in Stewart. He was diagnosed with brain cancer in the summer of 2014,
underwent brain surgery in June, and started radiation treatment in November of
the same year. By the time he was detained by ICE (in early February 2015), he
had finished radiation treatment but was ordered by his physician to follow up with
him every two weeks and to take several medications prescribed to him. Needless
to say, our client was forced to abruptly stop his life-saving treatment and
medication during his entire stay in Stewart, which amounted to almost 3 months.
Our client’s health deteriorated so dramatically that he
developed other worrisome symptoms. He suffered from chronic headaches (likely
related to his brain cancer diagnosis) and he reported to us that the staff at
Stewart dealt with this issue by giving him a couple of ibuprofen pills a day. He
lost a dramatic amount of weight while in detention and the left side of his
throat was visibly swollen. He informed us that he had asked the Stewart staff
to take him to see a doctor and that it was not until several weeks later that
his request was granted. However, during his visit to the doctor, he was
handcuffed so tightly that his hands turned purple—a condition that lasted for
several days. When our client asked the staff at Stewart to take him to the
doctor again, the staff refused to do this until the purple color came off his
hands, which did not happen until several days later.
Our firm filed a stay of removal with DHS asking for the
immediate release of our client under supervision for the sole purpose of
seeking urgent medical attention. However, despite the overwhelming evidence
that our client’s life was in serious danger, DHS denied our request. Our firm
immediately filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus with the U.S. District
Court of the Middle District of Georgia asking for our client’s immediate
release citing to violations of the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel
and unusual punishment. DHS’s response? Immediate removal. Sadly, the Middle
District of Georgia cannot possibly act quickly enough to grant any kind of
relief and DHS knows this, so it is easier for the Department to remove people
from the country and wash their hands than to address and rectify legitimate
issues of inhumane treatment in its detention centers.
It is one thing to keep detainees behind bars because they
may be a danger to the community, but it is quite a different one to do this in
violation of the U.S. Constitution and place their lives at serious risk. Treatment for brain cancer is no longer sufficient reason, under the Obama Administration to be grant a stay of removal to a long term permanent resident.
To read more about this case, you can click on the following
link to an interview given by our client to the news magazine Mundo Hispanico.
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