| Just when you think PWC is getting out of the limelight, here we go again. Guido Newbrough awoke in great pain last November. His fellow inmates tried to alert guards at the Piedmont Regional Jail. Guido was allegedly treated as a malingerer by the guards.
Unlike most of his cell mates, Guido was born in Germany and had lived in Prince William County since age 6. His mother had married an American who raised Guido as his own. The next part of the story is somewhat confusing. Guido was convicted of aggravated sexual assault in 2003 which made him eligible for deportation. He was sent to Piedmont Regional Jail last February on an ICE detainer. |
Sometime around Thanksgiving he became extremely ill from undiagnosed bacterial infections, was transported to a Richmond hospital, and died. He had complained for about a week of excruciating pain. Newborough is the second ICE detainee to die while in custody at Piedmont Regional Jail in the past 2 years.
The facility is being billed as the future ICE detainee center of the mid-Atlantic area. Sounds like they need to get a few things straightened out before they start bringing in people from other areas. There is a great deal of he said/she said going on. Great denial is coming from the correctional facility. A chorus of accusation is coming from the family of Guido Newborough and the ACLU.
These types of investigation will never really reveal the truth. The story is strange to start with and much has been omitted. This man could speak English so there was no language barrier. We can assume his status in the United States was legal, even though he had not been born here. Are we looking at prison oversight or treatment of illegal aliens?
The full story can be read at the Washington Post. Try to unravel this one. It is a hum-dinger. PWC appears to be innocent of any wrong-doing.
Did he lose his citizenship, or lose his legal status? Or did he never have it? I don’t get it. Somehow the fact that he was German by blood and looked American makes this less of an “immigration” issue and more of a prison treatment issue to me.
Bet you a million this is another instance of a legal permanent resident who obviously wasn’t permanent. They should change the name of their legal standing to legal conditional resident or make the word permanent mean what it says.
Again, I’d like to remind everyone this family is part of our community and could conceivably come across the posting. So, let’s keep it respectful.
Excellent points Alanna. My condolences to the family. I believe the first aspect of this tragedy is an unintended consequence of a law we passed in a state of hysterical myopia following the attacks of 9/11. Anyone “foreign” was suspect, so we somehow justified deporting people who had legal status, but were not yet neutralised, if they had a criminal record, even if the infraction took place before 9/11.
This is a reminder that indeed there is no reason to sacrifice our principles to cope with the dangers we face and have always faced as Americans, and that everyone in America deserves humane treatment, including prisoners. Hopefully this double tragedy will lead to more awareness and foresight as we reform our prisoner rights and immigration laws.
It looks like Virginia has its own version of GITMO now.
You’re right Alanna, his status must have been that of a legal permanent resident in order for him to be subjected to deportation. With that status, old criminal actions can cause the government to revoke that legal status and bring on a forced deportation.
Interestingly enough in the Post report, the son questioned his father about why ICE was at their house asking of his father “Dad what do you mean I am not an American Citizen”? This would indicate that he was a legal resident as opposed to a citizen.
Also remember, the Virginia Attorney General had made the deportation of illegal aliens and resident aliens who are convicted sex offenders a priority for ICE in this State.
Shameful that any person, regardless of status, standing or location should have to suffer physical pain that could be avoided.
While I don’t usually feel the least bit sorry for anything that happens to a sex offender, I don’t want them to die in horrible pain because of medical negligence.
Now if the victim wants to do something mean to them…..
It sounds like this correctional facility needs to clean up its act.
A sex offender who hurts children……… hmmm.
Who’s getting the contracts for building these facilities? And are they behind the scenes driving this agenda? That’s my concern.
Dick Cheney – who else?
Seriously, that is a good question. Don’t get me wrong about my 12:22 post. I don’t advocate mistreatment for anyone.
There was a great NYTimes expose on the this new industry of building jails for ICE. It is quite concerning to me. Could this be another obstacle to creating immigration reform, “lobbying” to stop reform in order to “help” the economy with this new prison enterprise?
Don’t get me wrong, I find this man’s depraved act disgusting, however, the 8th amendment guarantees your constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment. Furthermore, if he was here since he was 6, does he really claim citizenship to another country? That seems like a bizarre circumstance. It’s one thing to come here as an adult, gain permanent residency, commit a crime, and THEN get set home. Did the guy even speak German?
Part of the package with being a legal resident (or “alien” – DHS’s exact term) is that you are subjected to deportation if you commit and are convicted of any one of a group of crimes. As a Citizen, this cannot happen, but in the status of legal permanent resident, it can.
Once at a legal conference I was invited to, representatives of ICE and the Justice Department emphasized the example that if a legal permanent resident committed a bank robbery they would push for deportation after the sentence was completed, regardless how long that legal permanent resident had been living in the US, however, if that same person committed the same act the day after becoming a citizen, he/she would be out of the jurisdiction of Immigration and not subjected to deportation because they were a citizen.
There is a degree of responsibility on the individual to know what is involved with their own status and what, if any, perils there are with that status.
These kind of cases have occurred with people who came to the US even younger than 6, who came as babies. It doesn’t make any difference under the law whether or not the individual has even the remotest ties to his/her country of birth.
While this man’s crime was major, others in exactly the same legal position have been deported to countries they have no ties to for very minor crimes. In the article, there is a claim he did not know he wasn’t an American citizen. I guess if you come at 6, you might assume your parents acted on your behalf.
I think the article also shows the dangers of the privatization of corrections facilities. There is even less accountability than with government. Whatever we think of a person’s crime, they have the right to be treated humanely in detention and in any case, he wasn’t in detention for his crime.
Is it just me or does it seem like ICE is taking the easy way out? Leila mentions minor crimes. Why bother to deport someone of a minor crime if they have served their time. It is hard for me to muster up any sympathy for a child molester. However, no one should be dying in those facilities, regardless of how heinous their crime. Had this guy served his time?
Lethal inject is more humane.
Yes, he had served his time, such as it was, which wasn’t much. But the shock of his light sentence is an argument with the sentencing judge not immigration officials. It’s all in the article, including the restrictive terms of his indefinite probation after the jail time. They get into the particulars of the sentence and crime toward the end.
It makes no difference if someone has served their time. It makes no difference how long ago their crime was either or whether they have been law abiding for years or decades since. The law allows deportation of legal permanent residents without regard to any of those considerations. It also allows deportation on such offenses as shoplifting. Immigration judges lost a bunch of discetionary power in 1996. One source of info on this issue is Human Rights Watch:
http://www.hrw.org/en/search/apachesolr_search/deportation
But I found it easy to find other newspaper articles as well.
Moon-Howler, here is a website that offers some information on immigration law for attorneys. But the part below may help explain what ICE is looking for in a criminal illegal alien in deciding to pursue deportation or not.
http://immigration.lawyercentral.com/Classes-of-Deportable-Aliens-Answers-and-Information–10-13525-61.html
Aliens who have been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude committed within five years after the date of admission, where the maximum sentence, which could be imposed for the crime, is one year or longer, is deportable. Also, an alien who at any time after admission is convicted of two or more crimes involving moral turpitude is deportable. These deportation grounds also include aliens who are convicted of controlled substance violations (other than a single offense involving possession for one’s own use of 30 grams or less of marijuana), as well as drug abusers and drug addicts, and those who have been convicted of any firearms violations. The new act also makes deportable those aliens who have been convicted of a crime involving domestic violence, stalking, or child abuse. Also, any alien who is convicted of an aggravated felony at any time after admission is deportable. An aggravated felony is described in Section 101 (a) (43) of the Immigration Act. These are crimes which the Immigration Service considers particularly serious, and which will prevent nearly all forms of relief.
A very critical part is the “aggravated felony” clause. This includes a variety of crimes that could invoke the deportation clause.
Lucky, your intro specifies “criminal illegal alien” but is the info also for aliens who are not illegal, ie. legal permanent resident aliens?
PS: People forget a lot about the inbetweeners, people who are not illegally here, but aren’t citizens either. Some have also had deportation come up for technical reasons when they applied for citizenship, despite years of law abiding residence.
Perfectly Legal Immigrants, Until They Applied for Citizenship
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/12/us/12naturalize.html
Sorry, I mistyped. ICE would be looking for someone who was legally here, not a citizen, that these crimes/convictions would apply to. Yes, this law does apply.
THIS IS SO SAD, AND I KNOW FIRST HAND ABOUT THE TREATMENT AT PIEDMONT REGIONAL JAIL MY SON IS LOCKED UP THERE AND HE ISN’T AN IMMIGRANT, BUT HAS SEEN FIRST HAND WHAT IS GOING ON. HOW SAD THIS POOR MAN DIED A TERRIBLE AND PAINFUL DEATH. THIS PRIVATE FACILITY NEEDS TO BE SHUT DOWN!!!! THEY JUST HAD ALL THE TRUSTEE’S PAINT HALF THE BUILDING SO THAT THEY WOULDN’T BE FINED!!! SOMEONE IS MAKING ALOT OF MONEY AND WE ARE NOT GIVING MEDICAL CARE TO THOSE IN NEED. I THOUGHT WE PAID TAXES FOR THIS. IF YOU GO INTO DOC YOU ARE TAKING CARE OF, THAT IS IF YOU ARE AN AMERICAN BECAUSE THEY PROBABLY DONT TAKE ILLEGAL OR LEGAL IMMIGRANTS. THIS COUNTRY IS DOESN’T TAKE CARE OF IT’S PEOPLE. MY BROTHER AND I CAME TO AMERICA FROM ENGLAND WHEN HE WAS 9 AND I WAS 7. AT THE AGE OF 18 HE SOLD MARIJUANA TO AN UNDERCOVER POLICE OFFICER AND RECEIVED 2 AND 1/2 YEARS IN JAIL. WHEN HE WAS 40 YEARS OF AGE HE APPLIED TO GET HIS CITIZENSHIP AND THEY TOLD HIM HE OPENED UP A CAN OF WORMS BY TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT HIS FELONY AT 18 THEY HELD HIM IN NORFOLK AND TRIED TO DEPORT HIM. HOW IS IT THAT HE SERVED HIS TIME WENT ON TO GET IN NO MORE TROUBLE EARNED A LIVING AND PAID TAXES AND ALL OF A SUDDEN HIS WORLD IS TURNED UPSIDE DOWN. HIS LAWYER WANTED 18,000 DOLLARS TO TAKE CARE OF HIM STAYING IN OUR WONDERFUL COUNTRY AND GETTING HIS CITIZENSHIP WHICH HE FINALLY DID, BUT JUST TO THINK ABOUT WHY IN THE WORLD THEY LET HIM GO ON FOR YEARS LIVING IN OUR LAND OF FREEDOM PAYING TAXES AND BEING AN OUTSTANDING CITIZEN. THIS REALLY MADE ME MAD AS I WAS ALREADY A CITIZEN AND I WANTED TO JUST SAY TO —– WITH IT I DON’T WANT TO BE ONE ANYMORE. MY BROTHER DIDN’T HAVE THIS KIND OF MONEY HE SOLD HIS CAR WHICH WAS THE ONLY THING HE EVER OWNED AND STAYED ON EDGE FOR 2 YEARS WHILE THEY DEBATED ABOUT LETTING HIM STAY IN THIS COUNTRY. THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE OF WHY THINGS NEED TO CHANGE IN THIS COUNTRY. IF WE ARE GOING TO NEGLECT THIS INMATES THEN JUST SEND THEM ON BACK TO THE COUNTRY THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW AND MAYBE THEY CAN GET SOME MEDICAL TREATMENT IN THEIR OWN COUNTRIES BECAUSE THEY WONT GET IT OVER HERE. YOU DON’T GET TO SEE A NURSE OR DOCTOR FOR FREE AT PIEDMONT IT COST MONEY AND WITHOUT ANY FAMILY TO PAY FOR IT THEN YOU JUST SUFFER. HOW COME THIS MAN’S FAMILY CAN’T SEE THE PRIVATE JAIL FOR NEGLECTING THEIR SON???????? HE DIED BECAUSE OF THE JAILS NEGLIGENCE. PLEASE HELP THESE PEOPLE AND STOP THE GREED OF THESE PRIVATE FACILITIES THAT COULD CARE LESS OF THE PEOPLE THEY HAVE HOUSED IN THEIR JAIL.
SAD TO BE AN AMERICAN SOMETIMES, Thank you for sharing your story. You have added yet another perspective to this tragic story. Regardless of one’s crime, all prisoners should receive medical attention in a timely manner. Just because one is in prison does not mean they have to give up their human rights.