Chicago is the World

Emmanuel Owusu arrived in the U.S. from Ghana on a student visa in 1972.  He spent most of his next 33 years in Chicago and was a legal permanent resident.

But U.S. immigration officials picked him up in 2006 because of a 1979 conviction for misdemeanor battery and retail theft, according to a story in Sunday’s New York Times.

The ailing 62-year-old barber lived the next two years in Arizona in a government facility ran by a private contractor. There he died of a heart ailment, battling deportation to the end.

”I am confused as to how subject came into our custody???” the Phoenix (Immigration) field office director, Katrina S. Kane, wrote to subordinates. ”Convicted in 1979? That’s a long time ago,”’ the Times reported.

“In response,” the Times reported, “a report on his death was revised to refer to Mr. Owusu’s ”lengthy criminal history ranging from 1977 to 1998.” It did not note that except for the battery conviction, that history consisted mostly of shoplifting offenses.”

What raises this story to such high level are the powerful and compelling details.

The Times acquired previously unreleased government reports that, in many cases, gave the full story or another story than the one offered at the time by federal officials. The American Civil Liberties took part in the Times’ effort to gain the documents.

One government document, for example, said that “unbearable, untreated pain” had been a significant factor in an immigrant’s suicide.

Where do you take this story now?

You check with local immigrant and immigrants groups, such as the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee  Rights for the names of persons who may have suffered inadequate care in an immigration detention facility.

You find out from the ACLU what immigrants’ stories might be linked back to Chicago.

You look for legal and other experts here and across the country who have tracked the conditions in these facilities, and again, you focus in on details about immigrants with roots or ties to Chicago.

On your own, you check the records of U.S. immigration offices for deaths and serious injuries suffered by immigrants from the Chicago area in these detention facilities. You check with the major consulates that serve Chicago’s immigrant communities.

If you are short on time and support, you look for help elsewhere. Can you link up with a radio station, a magazine, an immigrant publication elsewhere and share the work?

Can you find an academic expert or an advocacy group that can walk you through  the process? If you have any relatives, friends, neighbors who can recall instances, you build your reporting from there.

Those are my suggestions. What else can you do? Let’s share some thoughts, some experiences, some contacts here.

Here is the New York Times story:

http://tinyurl.com/ybgcoqc

Steve