Two of the six people who were arrested Friday morning at San Francisco’s immigration court had “complex medical needs,” a lawyer who met with the two detained men said.
One of the men was taken to the hospital in an ambulance following his Friday arrest after struggling to breathe while talking to lawyers, said Henry Burg, a staff member at Pangea Legal Services, and Amanda Maya, a lawyer with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. Burg and Maya met with both men after their arrests in court.
It’s unclear if the arrests caused the medical issues.
Neither Burg nor Maya were told what hospital the man would be sent to, and they said Immigration and Customs Enforcement gave no indication that they would inform the man’s family of his transfer.
It’s unclear what medical issues the second arrestee had.
The man who was later taken away by ambulance asked for medical assistance in Spanish, and was ignored by ICE officers until Maya helped him ask in English, Maya said.
Maya and Burg said they did not know whether the second man would be sent to a longer-term facility that could accommodate his medical needs. Typically, after being arrested in San Francisco, immigrants are sent to detention facilities elsewhere in California or the country.
ICE’s detention policy states that, when deciding whether to place someone in detention, it takes into account factors such as a “serious medical condition,” or “other humanitarian considerations.”
Friday’s arrests followed the Thursday arrest of a man who, a judge said, appeared mentally impaired. “It’s obvious to me that there are competency issues,” an immigration judge said just moments before the man’s arrest.
Burg, one of the immigration advocates who met with the men arrested, said that “there was always a class of people who were protected.”
It’s unprecedented, he continued, for ICE to detain immigrants with severe medical conditions like those that he saw today.
Absolutely sickening. Horrifying. Where is the mayor? The governor? The Board of supervisors?
Hopefully they are busy working to clean up the Tenderloin and the Mission.
Good. Let’s send them back to their own countries rather than having them burden our health-care system.
Agreed!
Burg, one of the immigration advocates who met with the men arrested today, said the rules of the game had changed under President Donald Trump.
Uhhhh….exactly.
Good. Thse people are criminals and are leeches on our already strained medical system. Deport them all. The city of San Francisco is turning into a third world cesspool. Get rid of these people who drive up out rents, lower our wages, fill our schools and emergency rooms and take medical care from citizens.
Agreed!
OK…medical issues…help him, but there are a lot of people in prison (and belong there) with medical issues. If he’s a sex offender (just for arguments sake), where does the medical issues angle figure in?
You’re unknowingly supporting a system that suppresses wages and living standards by allowing a cheap labor force to exist. If these individuals weren’t here, wages and quality of life would rise. Their limited literacy, even in their native tongues, leads to uninformed voting choices, contributing to poor leadership.
Furthermore, you’re being manipulated in the ICE protests, which are reportedly funded by Walmart heiress Christie Walton. Essentially, you’re unwittingly enabling Walmart’s reliance on what’s described as a “slave-labor force.”
The President’s stance on this issue is correct: these individuals are a drain on society, contributing to crime and consuming valuable social resources, pushing American families into homelessness. Ignore churches and labor unions, as they’re driven by self-interest and corruption.
If these individuals had any valuable skills or contributions, they would utilize them in their home countries. If they’re genuinely seeking refuge, they should do so in other developing nations rather than overwhelming our asylum system, which in turn jeopardizes those with legitimate medical needs.