Immigrant gets meds after protest

A hot dusty road in rural southeastern Michigan leads to the Monroe County Jail dormitory. But on Sunday, July 30, when a dozen protesters walked down that road with signs in hand to see about Óscar Ramos Hernández, and entered a large, tent-like detention building, something changed. Not only did the delegation demand and win the right to see Ramos, but a few days later he was transferred to a facility in Detroit with improved conditions.

Supporters get inside detention camp. WW photo: Cheryl LaBash

Latinos Unidos called together the delegation to confront the emergency health crisis caused when the wheelchair that Ramos depends on was taken away and his pain medication changed to a weaker dosage, leaving him in excruciating pain. Ramos, an immigrant from Honduras, suffers from a spinal cord injury resulting from a fall off scaffolding at work four years ago.

From the time officials of so-called Homeland Security took him from his Detroit home on immigration charges in early June, his special needs were ignored. The result was torture—a violation of his human rights. Shifted from jail to jail, shackled in solitary detention and finally denied his mobility aid and appropriate medical care, Ramos was threatened with being returned to the “hole” if he didn’t get up and walk to get his food.

In the mass dormitory, where 72 of the 80 detainees speak Spanish, there is only one Spanish-speaking guard. Last winter, the immigrants were forced to take showers in an unheated area. They were reportedly tear-gassed for protesting.

In an appeal for support, Latinos Unidos coordinator Rosendo Delgado stated, “Mr. Ramos is an extreme case of a pattern of widespread human rights violations of undocumented immigrants being held in federal detention centers and in contracted county jails in Michigan and throughout the nation.”

An article in the July 19 New York Times said private and county immigrant detention centers are raking in $95 a night per detainee. Latinos Unidos is continuing to demand adequate medical attention for Óscar Ramos. For more information, contact [email protected].