Mexican man’s widow sues US
The widow of a Mexican man who crossed into the US illegally in the boot of a car is suing the US government, alleging that staff at a detention facility in California repeatedly ignored his pleas for medical care, causing him to die from complications of pneumonia weeks later.
The lawsuit, filed in San Diego federal court, is among a string of cases alleging negligence when it comes to the medical problems of immigrants held at detention centers across the country. A 2007 lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which was settled in 2010, addressed similar issues in the Otay Mesa section of San Diego.
“If these facts in the complaint are true, then this would violate the core principles not only of the Constitution but of the settlement,” said David Loy, legal director for the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. The prior lawsuit “addressed precisely this kind of problem of people begging for care and not getting care.”
Most of those in the Otay Mesa Detention Centre are being detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The facility also houses criminal detainees and material witnesses for the US Marshals Service.
The lawsuit names the federal government, as well as CoreCivic — the private company contracted to run the Otay Mesa centre — and a guard identified as C.O. Langdon.
Health care at the facility is provided by ICE’s health service corps and the federal Public Health Service.
Found in car boot
A San Diego ICE spokeswoman declined to comment on the case last week, saying she didn’t have enough information. A CoreCivic spokesman in Tennessee, where the company is headquartered, said officials had not yet reviewed the lawsuit.
According to court records, Gerardo Cruz-Sanchez, 32, tried to cross into the US in the boot of a car on February 4, 2016, at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. The driver, Juan Carlos Ortega-Gonzalez, had presented someone else’s US passport to the Customs and Border Protection officer. Cruz-Sanchez and two other immigrants in the US illegally were then found in the boot.