Gotham Gazette - The Citizen

With neither political party eager to take on the hot issue of immigration changes in an election year, reports continue to highlight problems associated with our existing system, particularly the treatment of some 30,000 people detained for violating immigration rules.

Many of these people, who do not have the protections accorded U.S. citizens accused of a crime, find themselves in facilities operated by private companies. "Detention contracts have helped turn once-ailing private prison companies into a multibillion-dollar growth industry with record revenues, healthy stock prices and ambitious expansion plans," the San Diego Times-Union reported.

Relying on such facilities saves the government money, but critics assail overcrowding and other poor conditions. After filing a Freedom of Information Act request, the New York Times learned that, according to the federal government, 66 people died in immigration custody from January 2004 to November 2007. The paper's Nina Bernstein reported on allegations of appallingly bad medical care that may have contributed to the deaths and on the difficulties families have had learning their relatives were sick or dead. The article spotlighted the death of Boubacar Bah, a 52-year-old tailor from Guinea who had lived and worked in New York City, making elaborate and expensive gowns, before he was sent to a privately run New Jersey detention facility.

Apparently in response to the article, a U.S. representative from California has introduced a bill that would set mandatory standards of health care for detained immigrants and require that all deaths be reported to the Justice Department and Congress.

The shortage of food in parts of the world has prompted some immigrants from New York -- particularly those from Mali and Senegal -- to send boxes of rice, sugar and tomato paste to families back home, the Sun reported. While there's not a shortage here, food-- along with energy and other goods -- has become more expensive in New York, posing a hardship for some immigrants. This month we look at the economic situation, along with the paucity of Hispanics in key positions, discrimination against Sikhs, an improvement in healthcare and other stories from the Spanish, Korean, Indian, Russian and Polish Press via our partner, Voices That Must Be Heard.

Gotham Gazette - The Citizen.