PROVIDENCE, R.I., Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Attorneys for an immigration detainee who died of untreated liver cancer in a Rhode Island prison say Jason Ng was treated with indifference by jailers.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in Providence on behalf of Ng's widow, attorney John McConnell says the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the private operators of the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., and others failed to provide Ng with proper medical care in the final months of his life, the Providence (R.I.) Journal reported Tuesday.
Ng, a Chinese national who had lived in the United States since 1992, was arrested for an overstayed visa in 2007 and was shuttled to several prisons, where his health deteriorated from advancing liver cancer and a fractured spine. In the days before his August death, McConnell says jail staff ignored Ng's pleas for help and refused to believe that he was seriously ill.
"They dragged him like a piece of furniture," he said. "They treated him like an animal instead of a human being."
Michael Gilhooly, a regional spokesman for ICE, declined to comment to the Journal on suit, but noted last month's ICE decision to terminate its detainee contract with Wyatt.
