When immigrants die in custody

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

At least 62 immigrants have died in administrative custody in the U.S. since 2004, federal officials confirmed this week. More than 27,500 foreign nationals are held each day in local jails, private prisons, and U.S. facilities while the government decides whether to deport them. Several family members of those who have died in custody told The New York Times that they have been unable to learn the circumstances of their relatives’ deaths. The Homeland Security Department recently ordered a review of the death of a Korean woman, Young Sook Kim, 60, who was swept up in a raid on a New Mexico massage parlor. Held in a jail in Albuquerque, she was denied medical care despite repeated requests, other detainees said. She died of pancreatic cancer the day after she was finally taken to a hospital.