Law firm cites increased concern for Immigrant’s Medical and Psychological Impairment
CLEVELAND, Jan. 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Following a series of deportations of Cleveland, Ohio area residents, civil rights attorney David Malik and immigration attorney Anna Markovich are suing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for immigration-related information they allege ICE is deliberately concealing.
The attorneys are looking to mitigate the conflict that has developed between the implementation of ICE detention and forced deportation of immigrants and the resulting challenges to basic human rights and fundamental bioethical principles pertaining to healthcare. Ethical implications arise when detainees and deportees become seriously injured, ill, or die while in detention or shortly thereafter as a result.
Attorney David Malik noted that “We seek to steer the public discussion away from the bitterness of politics and toward consideration of human health and the reality that the majority of these immigrants are genuinely suffering medically and psychologically. We look to the law and bioethics for solutions to address these tragic consequences. Judges cannot solve these problems without the assistance of the medical community and its scholars and practitioners.”
Between January 2017 and October 2017, ICE made 110,568 arrests, a 42% increase from the prior year. Several of those arrested and deported were long-time Cleveland area residents with no criminal histories. Many were also actively communicating and working with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in order to gain lawful status in the United States.
In November of 2018, attorney Malik submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asking ICE for more information about the people who have been deported, ICE’s policies related to racial and ethnic profiling, and ICE’s process for determining which individuals to deport.
In the recently filed lawsuit, Malik states that ICE failed to provide this information and asks that a federal judge order the government to release it.
“We believe that the public has a right to know the facts about how ICE makes its decisions,” noted Anna Markovich. “We are very concerned that ICE’s current enforcement priorities have resulted in racial profiling and illegal uses of the agency’s discretion. These deportations have had real and devastating health consequences for the children and families left behind, and they deserve answers and we seek to change this pattern and practice of abuse.”
SOURCE Malik Law
