Nina Bernstein Follows-up on Her Hillman Prize Winning Story “Deaths in Immigrant Detention” | Hillman Foundation

Nina Bernstein Follows-up on Her Hillman Prize Winning Story “Deaths in Immigrant Detention”

UPDATE: Nina Bernstein follows-up on her Hillman-prize winning story “Deaths in Immigrant Detention” with two recent pieces, “Documents Reveal Earlier Immigrant Deaths,” “Officials Obscured Truth of Immigrant Deaths in Jail,’ and “A Fatal Ending for a Family Forced Apart by Immigration Law” in the New York Times.

In “Documents Reveal Earlier Immigrant Deaths,” Bernstein writes about new reports of deaths in the immigration detention system.

Among the most haunting cases to emerge from the files are deaths that were undisclosed at the time but foreshadow the later fatalities that galvanized public attention.

One example is the case of Miguel J. Rodriguez Gonzales, 43, a longtime legal resident of California who was detained for immigration violations on Feb. 22, 2006. He had end-stage renal disease, diabetes and chronic heart failure, and was receiving dialysis at a hospital three times a week.

Records show that Mr. Rodriguez fell at least five times during his first 10 days in detention and reported “intense pain all over.” By March he was unable to shower by himself, and “for hygiene issues” he was sent to a disciplinary isolation cell. Soon he had to be taken to the clinic in a wheelchair because he was unable to walk.

Read the rest here.

 

In “Officials Hid Truth of Immigrant Deaths in Jail,” Bernstein brings the Boubacar Bah piece full circle.

Silence has long shrouded the men and women who die in the nation’s immigration jails. For years, they went uncounted and unnamed in the public record. Even in 2008, when The New York Times obtained and published a federal government list of such deaths, few facts were available about who these people were and how they died.

 

But behind the scenes, it is now clear, the deaths had already generated thousands of pages of government documents, including scathing investigative reports that were kept under wraps, and a trail of confidential memos and BlackBerry messages that show officials working to stymie outside inquiry.

Read the rest here.

 

In “A Fatal Ending for a Family Forced Apart by Immigration Law,” Bernstein tells the story of the Enclada family, who lost their father when he committed suicide in detention.

Over the years, many couples who had to separate have managed to reunite; others split up for good. Some lawmakers see the hurdle as necessary to deter illegal immigration and marriage fraud, while others say it needlessly tears families apart.

But no one really keeps track of the results. The visa ordeal that left Mrs. Encalada a widow with four young children hints at a hidden toll.

Read the rest here.