Hiu Lui Ng died in agony last Wednesday, under guard in a Rhode Island hospital. He had terminal cancer, which had spread to his bones, liver and lungs. He had a fractured spine. His captors, working for the Department of Homeland Security, claimed for months that he had been faking it.His hideous crime was overstaying a visitor's visa. He applied for asylum and was denied. This man had a wife and children. He wasn't a fucking terrorist, but our government defines as a threat to national security anyone not born in the right zip code with the correct political views.
When American history books are updated, this era will go down as the darkest, most shameful failure of justice, democracy, and decency since this country's birth. We don't know a fraction of the evil that's been done.
I've been angry with my country before. I've been embarrassed at some of its more bone-headed blunders. But I've never been so ashamed as I am now.
3 comments:
sympathise with your shame Dana.
For years our Government had an inhuman refugee policy, one where families were locked up in detention centers for years, some for nearly a decade. most have been proven to be legitimate refugees who had made their way down through Asia and to Indonesia where they were often herded onto leaky, ill prepared boats by people smugglers and then shipped out to mainland Australia where they were usually immediately picked up by the authorities and shipped of to some god forsaken camp with razor wire fences and then interrogated like common criminals. I still feel the shame at our treatment of these people by our Government, Fortunately there has been a change of Government here and the Detention centers are being emptied and the backlog of requests are finally being processed instead of being buried under mountains of red tape.
Hopefully there will be a change of Government in the US for the better. Lets hope your hopes for November are completely opposed to my predictions, lame as they may be :-)
If you need a little more fuel for your fire (I know it's sizzling already) read The Dark Side by Jane Mayer...
Hang on - the guy is dying, riddled with cancer, with a broken spine, and he's under guard??
What did they think he was going to do? Is not like he could do a runner.
And even if he somehow could move... what was he going to do next? Die outside in even more agony.
Morons.
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